Escapee narrates ordeal in Boko Haram camp, knows where the Chibok girls are

fuad lawal

March 18, 2015 8:30 PM

Maryamu Bala, 67, from Madagali, Adamawa state, has said she knows where the Chibok girls might be, based on information she got while in captivity.

She narrated her experience to a Daily Times correspondent, saying: “My son, I saw devils, I saw cannibals and people who can do anything in the name of religion. My first three weeks in that camp also opened my eyes to the fact that the place is for training recruits as foot soldiers. We saw helicopters dropping things in cartons; heavy objects were always being unloaded using the captured victims under very hash instructions.”

“people every day going into the other part of the building amidst tight security. Some of the people resembled Arabs with long hairs, while some are pure white coming around having series of meetings.

“A girl who is one of the maids confided in me, ‘Mama, you see the other side of the camp is where Abubakar Shekau and top commandants are living. There are many girls of our age there, even me, they don’t allow me to go there’.

“When that young girl said that to me, I quickly remembered the story of the abducted Chibok school girls. Though I did not see them, my spirit told me they are in that camp.”

“They gave us Muslim veils and told us we were no longer Christians. They taught me to be meditating on a portion of the Koran daily… It surprised me so much that their kind of Islam is different with the one I know many of my relations are practicing in Madagali. They taught us to be worshiping at periods different from those I used to see my people observing when they are to pray. At times, East is not a compulsory direction of worship.”

“In the night, a man I never met walked up to where we were sleeping and told us, ‘I saw you crying yesterday and it touched my heart. I was kidnapped just like you for more than four years. But don’t worry, I will help you to escape —you and your daughter this night.”

“My brother, we trekked in that evil forest until my strength failed me. When that man noticed I no longer had strength, he backed me. We trekked close to 30km till we got to a fenced place… from where the man said goodbye and we trekked for five days to reach Yola Adamawa State.”

She is convinced she can locate the girls because she is very familiar with the terrain as she used to fetch firewood there as a girl.

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