Bring Back Our Girls group confirms identity of rescued Chibok girl

The Bring Back Our Girls group has confirmed the identity of Rakiya Gali, one of the kidnapped Chibok girls who was rescued by the military on Thursday.

In a statement by the #BBOG spokesperson, Sesuh Akume, the group said Ms. Gali is the 24th girl to be found of 219 girls kidnapped on April 14, 2014 from the secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, by the Boko Haram.

“Having exhausted all our internal verification modalities, our movement can confirm that Rakiya Abubakar Gali (#49 in our list as Rakiya Gali) is indeed one of our missing Chibok girls. She is the 24th to return out of 219 missing #ChibokGirls.

“One hundred and ninety-five (195) remain missing. It is 3 days to #Day1000 and we remain highly hopeful that the rest of our girls will be rescued and reunited with their families.

“We commend the Nigerian military, the Multinational Joint Taskforce (MNJTF), the Civilian JTF, and all the security forces working day and night to rout the terrorists, and return our #ChibokGirls and all others abducted,” the group said in its statement on Thursday evening.

The Nigerian Army had announced on Thursday that its troops stationed in the north-east rescued Ms. Gali.

The spokesperson for the army, Sani Usman, made the announcement on his Facebook Page Thursday afternoon.

“Troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE during investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists discovered one of the abducted Chibok School girls, Rakiya Abubakar, with her six months old baby,” he said.

“According to preliminary investigation, it was discovered she is the daughter of Abubakar Gali Mulima and Habiba Abubakar of Chibok. She further stated that she was a student of Senior Secondary School Class 3B (SS 3B), before her abduction along with her colleagues on 14th April 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorists.

“Rakiya Abubakar is presently undergoing further medical investigation and would soon be released to the Borno State Government,” Mr. Sani said later on a Whatsapp platform operated by his office.

The #BBOG announced plans to commence a daily protest from January 8 in an attempt to put more pressure on the federal government to ensure the release of the remaining girls.

The group in a statement signed by its co-conveners, Aisha Yesufu and Obi Ezekwesili on January 3 said it was dissatisfied with the seeming silence of the government on the remaining girls, after 21 of them were freed in October.

The 21 girls were freed after negotiations between the federal government and the Boko Haram.

The protest is scheduled to start on the 1000th day the girls were abducted.