Suddenly, the military was withdrawn, and Boko Haram terrorists swooped on the sleepy town of Dapchi in Yobe State, went straight to the Government Girls Science Technical School, and made away with 110 girls.
Everybody was alarmed. Another kidnap of school girls, when all the Chibok girls have not been found? What is amiss? Many people were worried and a lot of people became hysterical.
Then, came the blame games. The police said it was after the military was withdrawn that the insurgents swooped on the school and kidnapped the girls. The military on their part, said they were not responsible for what had happened, and that the police should bear the blame.
When people began to insinuate that a lot of water had passed under the bridge and that there was consipiracy in the whole saga, the federal government said that it had set up a committee to unravel the circumstance that led to the abduction of the girls. Till date, the committee is yet to turn in its report.
Meanwhile, one government delegation after the other had been visiting Dapchi to assure the parents that their girls would soon be released. This was crowned by President Buhari’s visit about one week ago, where he boasted that his response to the Dapchi kidnap saga was better than what former President Jonathan did in the case Chibok girls kidnap, even though Buhari is yet to visit Chibok since coming to power about three years ago.
Sensing that the Dapchi girls’ kidnap was an orchestrated and deliberate act by the Nigerian government, Amnesty International in a report, two days ago, claimed that the Nigerian security agencies were well aware about the presence of Boko Haram insurgents in Dapchi, and yet, they allowed the kidnap to happen.
The next day, after Amnesty International’s accusation, and the later denial by the Nigerian military of complicity in the kidnap saga, Nigerians woke up to be told that Boko Haram members had freed most of the kidnapped Dapchi girls.
Interestingly, in a video currently circulating, Boko Haram members were seen dropping the so-called kidnapped girls without the presence of any Nigerian security operative, while many people were hailing and dancing for them.
In other words, Boko Haram came to Dapchi, kidnapped the school girls without the presence of security operatives. They later came back to Dapchi, and released the girls equally without the presence of security operatives. Who is fooling who?
A lot of meanings have been read by Nigerians into the entire incident. First some people were of the view that the Dapchi girls were deliberately taken away and hid somewhere by the APC led federal government, to be later released, in order to score some cheap political points.
Others people strongly believe that the exercise was aimed at empowering Boko Haram members. Different news agencies had reported of huge sums of money being paid by the Nigerian government as ransom to Boko Haram members before they would agree to release of people in their net, including the release of their leaders under the captivity of government. It was also alleged that some high ranking government officials equally partake in sharing the money.
In the case of Dapchi, Sahara Reporters, an online news agency, had categorically reported that some huge sums of money were paid as ransom by the Nigerian government to Boko Haram before the girls were released.
Is another Nollywood not in the offing, the theatre of the absurd?
