Rescued Chibok Girl Rejects Reunion With Family, Wants to Return to Boko Haram Husband

A former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ahmed Rufai, has revealed how a rescued Chibok schoolgirl expressed a desire to return to her Boko Haram husband despite being reunited with her family.

Rufai disclosed this while speaking at an international security forum in Qatar, where he highlighted the challenges security agencies face in rescuing and reintegrating victims of terrorism.
According to him, the rescued woman had been married to three Boko Haram fighters, with her first two husbands reportedly killed during military engagements.
He explained that after her rescue, she was taken to Abuja for medical examinations and debriefing.

However, what surprised security officials was her attitude towards the terrorist group and her desire to return to the environment where she had spent years in captivity.
Rufai said the woman spoke positively about a Boko Haram zonal commander who had taken her under his care and arranged new husbands for her whenever her previous husbands were killed.

“She had a godfather who was a zonal commander of the terrorist group, who adopted her as a daughter. Each time she lost her husband in the fight, he would be the one to get her a new husband,” he said.
The former intelligence chief explained that although the woman was happy to see her parents again, she was unwilling to remain with them after her rescue.
“She loved them. She wanted to see them, and so on. And then the third interesting thing is that we subjected her to medical checks and found her to be very healthy. But the interesting thing is that she wanted to go back,” Rufai stated.

Recall that Boko Haram insurgents abducted 276 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014. The abduction attracted widespread international condemnation, with several girls remaining in captivity for years.
Some of the abducted girls were reportedly forced into marriages with insurgents during their captivity.

Rufai said the experience demonstrated the psychological and social complexities involved in rescuing people who had spent several years within terrorist-controlled environments.
He also explained that terrorist groups abduct people for different reasons, including ideological beliefs, political objectives and financial gains.

According to him, some kidnappings are intended to attract attention to a group’s cause rather than generate ransom payments.
“In most cases, it was political, to make their case known,” he said.
He added that when kidnappers were motivated by money, security agencies sometimes had to rely on discreet negotiations and trusted intermediaries to secure the release of victims.

Rufai further distinguished ideologically motivated terrorist organisations from criminal kidnapping networks, saying the latter were primarily driven by financial interests.
He noted that some criminal gangs involved in kidnapping also engage in arms trafficking, vehicle theft and attacks on security personnel.