Nigeria - The Federal Government has invited parents of the 82 Chibok schoolgirls, who were released penultimate weekend by Boko Haram, to Abuja where they will be re-united with their daughters.
The Chairman, Chibok Community in Abuja, Mr. Hosea Tsambido, said this in an interview with PUNCH on Sunday.
Some Chibok representatives, who met with the Federal Government last week, were given photographs of the girls while the representatives handed over the pictures of the released girls to the parents in Chibok for identification.
It was learnt that the concerned parents had been able to identify the girls and were therefore asked to come to Abuja to meet the girls on Friday.
Tsambido stated, “Many of the parents have identified their children through the photos and I was told that they are coming on Friday.”
When asked if the Federal Government would be sponsoring the trip, Tsambido said, “I don’t know. What the parents told me was that they were asked to come on Friday. I didn’t ask if the government would sponsor the trip but usually, the government sponsors such trips.”
One of the guardians of the rescued girls, Yahi Dwata, also confirmed that the Federal Government had asked the parents to come on Friday,
Dwata, whose niece, Comfort Bulus, is among the rescued girls, said, “It is true. I have received word from parents in Chibok that the government asked them to come on Friday. I will also be in Abuja on Friday.”
The Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, who is coordinating the rehabilitation of the Chibok girls, could not be reached on the telephone as she did not return calls to her telephone while she had yet to respond to a text message as of the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of the schoolgirls may suffer a setback following a directive by the United States Government to stop the funding of the United Nations Population Fund.
The UNFPA is a UN agency which focuses on curbing child marriage, unwanted pregnancies and also provides supplies and services to victims.
The agency had, last week, pledged to “provide emergency reproductive health care and psychosocial counselling and support” to the recently rescued girls.
However, UNFPA’s Deputy Representative in Nigeria, Eugene Kongnyuy, said the funding cuts had already hurt the agency’s ability to help kidnapped women and girls recover after being freed by Boko Haram.
Kongnyuy was quoted as saying this during an interview with Karen Attiah, The Washington Post’s Global Opinions Editor.
In the article, which was published in the US-based newspaper on Friday, Kongnyuy said, “We receive less funds so our capacity to respond now is limited.
“The United States used to contribute funding to our regular resources. This year we requested $1m from the US government for our gender-based violence program in the North-East, and initially it was approved.
“A few days ago, we were informed that the funding would not come. We could have used that money to respond quicker to the needs of the recently released girls.”
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