Salome’s rescue gives Chibok parents hope over remaining girls
The Chibok community in Borno State yesterday jubilated on receiving the news of the rescue of one of the 113 remaining girls in Boko Haram captivity.
Women leader of the Abducted Chibok Girls’ Movement for Rescue, Mrs. Yana Galang, phoned to tell Daily Trust that the entire community was elated at the information about the rescue of Salome Pogu by the military.
Mrs. Galang said, “Although Salome’s parents currently reside at Kaumutayahi village which is far from Chibok town, I’m right now preparing to go and break the cheery news to kinsmen of the girl’s parents. And we here in Chibok are in jubilant mood.”
Mrs. Galang, whose daughter is still in Boko Haram’s den, added, “I have just returned from homes of some of the parents whose daughters are yet to be rescued. I went to them to renew the hope for the rescue of theirs. The rescue of Salome is a sign that those of us whose daughters are still with the insurgents should continue to have faith in the commitment of the government at returning our daughters to us.”
Salome Pogu hails from Kaumutayahi village in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno state. She is one of the 276 girls initially abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok on 14th April, 2014.
Her rescue brings to a total of 108 girls so far out of Boko Haram captivity. Three were first separately rescued, while sets of 21 and 83 were later negotiated for by government.
Army Spokesman at the Operation Lafiya Dole Theater Command, Col. Onyema Uwachukwu, said in a statement in Maiduguri yesterday that their troops deployed in Pulka yesterday rescued Salome.
“So far, preliminary investigations reveal that the young girl identified as Salomi Pagu is the same as the Chibok girl published on serial 86 of the online list of abducted Chibok girls,” he said, adding, “Currently the girl who was intercepted in the company of another young girl, Jamila Adams about 14 years old with a child, are in the safe custody of troops and receiving medical attention.”