Chibok: Video Shows Shettima Querying Soldiers for Denying Parents Access to 21 Freed Girls

A short video clip has shown Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, querying the rationale behind soldiers and men of Department of State Services (DSS), shielding the 21 Chibok schoolgirls recently released by Boko Haram terrorists  from their parents during the Christmas celebration in Chibok.

The video, which was obtained from a government official, showed Shettima directing soldiers and DSS officials to desist from denying parents rights to meeting their children. The governor had been informed on arriving Chibok on Boxing Day that the soldiers had over restricted the girls to a government building and had stopped anyone from reaching them due to an “exaggerated fear not to loose any of the girls or for any family to pose threats.”

 The governor was in Chibok and other Christian communities in Askira-Uba as part of his outreach to Christians during the Christmas. Shettima was said to have been irked by the restriction following which he invited all security heads as well as the soldiers and DSS officials guarding the girls for a moment with the girls.
The governor said there was no point bringing the girls to Chibok if their parents and relations were being restricted from interacting with them. “As much as possible, General (speaking to a Brigadier General, leading the security guards), let them mingle with their parents.

No soldier or security man should be around them, give them that privacy. They have been without their parents for over two years. They deserve some privacy. I don’t want any soldier or SSS hanging around them. Let them have a full time with their parents,” Shettima said in the video.