“I am really worried about her wellbeing because she was not feeling well,” Galang said.
“Six months ago, she had a surgery to remove appendix and so had been on drugs. She was still on drugs when they were kidnapped.
“She was a very supportive child. She wanted to go to the university to become great in life. These were the things she always talked about. I am really worried because I don’t know what might happen to her in that forest.”
Like many Chibok households inflicted with the same wound, it has not been easy for the Galangs moving on with life without their precious daughter. For them, the entire episode is a big nightmare they are hoping to wake up from.
“I still find it hard to believe that my daughter is missing. I have not been able to sleep or eat well because it is very terrible for somebody who is as sick as she is to be taken away like that.
“She came home to visit her father who had come all the way from Maiduguri after three months. Her father has another wife in Maiduguri so he comes to visit and spend time with us in Chibok once in a while. That was the last time I saw her. It was immediately she got back to the school that this incident happened.
“We are believing God to bring all the girls back alive. She was a very gentle girl. She has a young sister named Esther who has not stopped crying since she was taken away. I keep assuring her that one day by God’s grace, Rufkatu would come back alive,” she said.
A handful of other mothers who interacted with our correspondent during the chance meeting in Lagos during the week, also expressed concern over the safety and health conditions of their daughters. Many of them are worried that if rescue efforts drag on, the girls could be afflicted with all manner of sicknesses or even lose their lives in the process.
In the wake of the girls’ abduction, there has been blame trading by the Borno State government and the West African Examination Council over whose laxity led to the sad development. While WAEC had claimed it warned the state government against staging the exam in the town, the administration had strongly debunked that allegation. But some of the aggrieved women revealed they were forced into allowing their daughters live in the hostel during the examination.
“We preferred our daughters going to school, write their papers and come back home but the people in charge refused, claiming the girls would be roaming about, that some of them don’t have anywhere to stay in Chibok so they should all stay in school,” one of the women who identified herself as Beatrice, told Saturday PUNCH. Two of her daughters were among those taken away by the extremists.
“We pleaded that the ones from the community should come home but unfortunately, nobody listened. The day the arts students concluded their papers, there were five days interval in between and so we asked for the girls to return home during that period but they refused.
“Some of the students disobeyed and went through the fence and that was their saving grace. That was how some of them escaped the kidnapping. It was those who obeyed the instruction of the school that are now the victims of this abduction.
“Nobody sought our opinion before deciding that the girls stayed in the hostel. Most schools in Borno have been closed because of Boko Haram, how silly would we be to allow our children into such danger? We were never aware of that arrangement.”
Indeed, the last seven weeks have brought plenty of sleepless nights and agony for mothers, fathers, siblings and relatives of the missing girls. The incident has sparked a global outrage with millions around the world demanding for their immediate release. The Nigerian government and military overwhelmed by the enormity of the operation, had sought help from its African neighbours and the West in wrestling the girls away from the grip of the insurgents. That move hasn’t brought the expected results as many of the girls, apart from those reported to have escaped at different times, remain in their captors’ den – away from the glare of the world.