Just as Nigerians were settling into the news of the first schoolgirl to be rescued, two years after over 200+ female students were abducted from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, the Nigerian Army claimed last night that a second Chibok girl, Miss Serah Luka, was rescued yesterday.
Serah’s rescue came as Miss Amina Ali who was rescued on Wednesday by members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) on the fringes of Sambisa, was flown in a presidential jet with her family to Abuja, where she met with President Muhammadu Buhari at Presidential Villa in Abuja.
A statement by the Nigerian Army spokesman, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, said Serah, who is Number 157 on the list of the abducted schoolgirls, was a junior secondary school one (JSS1) student of Government Secondary School, Chibok, at the time of her abduction, and is believed to be the daughter of Pastor Luka.
However, the claim by the army immediately raised doubts due to the timing of a second rescue exactly 24 hours after the first Chibok girl, Amina, regained her freedom after two years in captivity.
Also, the claim by the army that Miss Luka was a JSS1 student at the time of her abduction ran contrary to what has been reported consistently for two years that the 276 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram were senior secondary school three (SS3) students who were in school taking their West African School Certificate examination.
A review of the full list of the abducted girls published by ThisDay also showed that there was no Serah Luka on the list. The names with some semblance to Sarah Luka on the list included “Serah Samuel”, “Serah Nkeki”,“Kauna Luka” and “Naomi Luka”.
Tsambido Hosea, chairman of the Chibok community in Abuja, told TheCable on Friday that he was still trying to confirm if the rescued girl was actually a student of the school.
He, however, emphasised that if she was a student of the school then there was “no doubt” that she was one of the abducted girls. “I have called the vice-principal of the Chibok secondary school to go and check the records to confirm if she is a student of the school. I’m still waiting for a response,” he said.
Tunji Olarenwaju, a member of the strategic team of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement, also told the publication that there was a huge possibility that Luka was one of the girls that were abducted from the girls’ secondary school in Chibok.
He added that her real name might be “Serah Kauna” and not “Serah Luka” as stated by the army.
When contacted on the rescue of the second Chibok girl, the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group, Aisha Yesufu, said the goup had not received any confirmation on the rescue of the girl.
Credits: ThisDay / TheCable
SHARE THIS