Serial survivor of terror, graduates on 2nd anniversary of the destruction of her orphanage
By Truth Nigeria Staff
“Bring back our girls!” was the banner cry of First Lady Michelle Obama in 2014, who rallied human rights agencies in Nigeria and the United States to rescue 277 high school girls abducted by Boko Haram jihadists. But the way out of the terrorist jungle has been a slow frustrating grind for many.
After nine years of bloody military engagements with the ISIS linked group and its stronger successor, the Islamic State of West Africa, in the Lake Chad region, more than 100 of the girls remain captives, whereas 80 have been released in captive swaps, according to media reports. https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/30/nigerias-chibok-girls-three-women-found-years-after-their-abduction/#:~:text=Out%20of%20the%20276%20girls,members%20of%20the%20jihadist%20group.
A brighter note was highlighted on Aug. 11, by the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, on Friday at the presidential villa, Abuja, where she welcome Chibok survivor Rebecca Kabu, one of the 277 Chibok schoolgirls had been grabbed by Boko Haram in 2014.
The First Lady who received Rebecca along with the Wife of the Vice President, Hajia Nana Shettima, promised to ensure that Rebecca is well taken care of medically and fit to return to school willingly. https://www.channelstv.com/2023/08/11/remi-tinubu-receives-rescued-chibok-girl-at-aso-villa/
Senator Oluremi Tinubu while assuring that the remaining girls in captivity are not forgotten, appreciated the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and other security agencies and those who were involved in Rebecca’s rescue.
“Our dear daughter, Rebecca, I welcome you, I’ve been praying for you all night, it is well with you, what has happened to her is much trauma; words are inadequate for me to describe it,” she said according to a government press release.
Ordeal in Cameroon for Boko Haram Survivor
As reports emerge that another Chibok schoolgirl has been rescued from Cameroun after nine years of abduction, a Borno schoolgirl who was a refugee in Cameroon has just graduated secondary school, Truth Nigeria has learned.
Sarah Emmanuel a teenager from Gwoza Borno State who has been an IDP since 2014, the same year as the Chibok school abductions, just graduated secondary school in Abuja despite extraordinary odds.
Sarah, her younger sister and mother were among female family members who survived after Boko Haram killed most of the males in the villages of Gwoza. At one point the terrorists released a video of scores of corpses which they bragged were 1000 men they had slaughtered in just one day making it the highest global one day atrocity in years. Boko Haram also declared its caliphate seat in Gwoza and has occupied it till now. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13809501
Sarah was besieged on Gwoza mountain for over a year, surrounded in the valley beneath by the terrorists, and was forced to eat grass, shrubs and drink mud just so she could survive even as others died. She was just eight years old at the time and her sister, six.
The mother and two daughters fled to Cameroon as refugees and attempted to register as refugees, but after waiting months to no avail, they accepted transportation arranged by Deeper Life Church for those who wanted to go back to Nigeria.
After being dropped off at the Cameroun Nigeria border, Sarah and other returnee refugees trekked in the bushes for hours until a truck that delivered supplies to Boko Haram on its way back had pity on them and gave them a lift.
This was not to be the end of Sarah’s travails as in August 2021, the orphanage where she and her sister found refuge and began their education was completely destroyed by terrorists speaking the Fulani language.
“I find it quite uncanny that just as two years ago another Borno schoolgirl I sponsored to school in USA graduated with her Masters/MBA on the anniversary of the murder of her father pastor Umar Faye, Sarah has now graduated around the two-year anniversary of the attack that destroyed her orphanage,” according to human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe whom the survivor sisters have adopted as their dad over the years.
“That Sarah could come from Cameroon after a couple of years living on mountains, forests, deserts and rivers, coach herself and come first in a class with Jos students who had not gone through what she went through is phenomenal,” Ogebe tells TruthNigeria.
“I have discovered that there are truly untapped diamonds in the rough throughout the north whom the tribulations of terror uncovered. I have no doubt that Sarah will achieve great things given her demonstrated tenacity,” Ogebe added.
Speaking at her graduation, Sarah was asked to say her saddest moment in school and answered that when her teacher accused her of not doing her homework, she cried. She said she wants to be a lawyer, that her favorite country is America and that she wishes more children attended the institution she was graduating from (name withheld for security.) See video of Sarah’s remarkable path to success https://fb.watch/aP9JmNwp-j/
“I am thankful to my cousin and his friend who through Facebook connected me to the benevolent proprietor who graciously gave scholarships to several orphans from the orphanage in Jos to go to an exclusive school in the nation’s capital. That a girl who lost her country after fleeing a mountain could come to the nation’s capital and finish her education through the kindness of strangers despite total state failure gives me hope in the people of this country.”
Emmanuel Ogebe is a human rights attorney based in the Washington, D.C. area and is a founding member of the Nigeria Law Group.
