#BringBackOurGirls: Abducted schoolgirls married off at N2,000, taken to Chad

A big blow has been struck at moves to rescue the girls kidnapped in Borno by Boko Haram militants after reports emerged that the children have been taken to other countries.

An elder from Chibok, where the girls were taken, is said to have stated that most of the girls had been married off to the militants at a bride price of N2000.

He also stated that the young girls had been taken by the insurgents to neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.

Daily Trust reports:

Dr. Pogu Chibok, who is the leader of the Chibok Elders Forum, told Daily Trust yesterday that latest information available to them indicates that most of the girls have been taken to the neighboring Cameroon and Chad by their captors.

He said before they were ferried in canoes across the Lake Chad, a wedding ceremony was conducted at a town on the border with Cameroon where they were married off to Boko Haram militants. He said N2,000 was paid as bride price on each of the girls to the specific Boko Haram members who took them from their school and who had assumed “ownership” of the students.

“They ferried them in canoes to Cameroon and Chad republic after they were wedded off to Boko Haram members who bidded (sic) and paid N2,000 each as dowries on their heads,” Bitrus said.

“The dowry was paid to their captors, the very people who abducted them from their school. One of them who married one of the girls took her to a border town close to Cameroon where villagers saw her.”

Bitrus said yesterday: “So many sources have informed us that the girls have been taken to Cameroon. Many villagers said they saw the girls being transported in trucks and then in canoes.

“On Sunday they were taken to Dikwa area where they (Boko Haram) have a camp there. From there they took them to Marte, then Monguno before they were finally ferried in canoes. It was yesterday we got this latest report of them being married off to the insurgents by their captors.”He said sources in Cameroon told them that most of the girls were now being held at “an area where the Boko Haram operates in Cameroon.”

On whether military authorities were informed about the movements of the girls, Bitrus said: “The military was alerted on Tuesday about two weeks ago when some villagers saw many of the girls being transported in trucks, some with even their school uniforms. The villagers tried calling the senator representing the zone but they couldn’t get him so they went to Bama barracks where they reported the matter.

“At the Bama barracks they were told that they must put it in writing, that that is the military tradition. At that time if the military had intervened they would have stopped them from reaching their destination.“And the fact that for nearly two weeks we have been talking about this and nothing is being done, then there are questions we have to ask. Nobody did anything.”

Bitrus sobbed as he spoke to our reporter yesterday.“What is happening with the Nigerian nation? I think we demand some answers. Today it is happening to these unfortunate girls from Chibok, tomorrow it may be somewhere else and that is why all Nigerians must rally around us on this,” he said.

“Female parents have been crying day and night, because nobody knows what government is doing about the whole issue. All that we read in the pap

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