Aisha Wakil, the Maiduguri based lawyer and rights activist, with
links with Boko Haram said she will do everything possible to get the
110 abducted Dapchi schoolgirls freed.
Aisha, also called Mama Boko Haram, believed the girls were captured
by the Barnawi group of the terror sect. She appealed to the group to
free the girls. She said she was ready to get them out even at the risk
of her life.
“Wallahi I will go after them, even if it will take my life to save
these girls. They call me Mummy, but they don’t listen to me. I keep on
talking to them, begging them to lay down their arms and embrace peace
but they will say ‘Insha-Allah mummy we are going to stop.’ Sometimes
they will say they are scared they are going to be killed but I will
tell them nobody is going to kill you, ” she said in an interview
published on PRNigeria website today.
She appealed to the abductors to release the young female captives,
said to be aged between 12 and 19 y.
Acccording to a list published
by the Federal Government on Tuesday, 37 of the girls are in JSS1-3,
while 73 are in SSS1-3.
Aisha Wakil, was a former member of the Committee on Dialogue and
Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the northern region of
Nigeria under the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan.
She had, in previous efforts, brought military officers and Boko Haram Commanders together during negotiations.
She was also credited for the release of some abductees, including
Chibok schoolgirls, from the Boko Haram sect via phone calls to the
leadership.
PRNigeria quoted her as saying she was ready to sacrifice her life to rescue the girls from their abductors.
The activist was reported to have helped in the circumcision of some
of the Boko Haram members when they were kids over two decades ago.
Her relationship with the sect members earned her the name ‘Mama Boko Haram.’
Disturbed about the latest abduction of 110 students of Government
Girls Technical College Dapchi, Aisha has renewed her commitment to
fight to end the Boko Haram insurgency.
The activist who cried during the interview said : “This thing that
is happening, is really breaking my heart. These children don’t even
know what they are doing. Some of them were not even born at the time
this thing started.
She appealed to the leader of the Barnawi group to release the girls:
“I heard you are now being called ‘Abu Mussad Albarnawi’ but I know
you as Habib and I am begging you to stop the killing and abduction. I
have sent many messages to you. I don’t know if you are getting these
messages or you just choose to continue to hurt your mother and make her
cry.“Dear Habib, Nuru and others, I was told you may be the ones
responsible for the kidnap of these girls. Wherever you may be if you
are listening to me, I beg you in the name of Allah to release the
girls back to their families.“What type of children will continue letting their mother to continue
crying. Dear Habib, I pray Allah touches your heart and that of your
colleagues to stop what you are doing. Please come out. I will never
deny you even if the whole world did. Those who know you know your
heart. They know you are no longer interested in the fight anymore.“I will hold all of you and wrap you with my wrapper and bring you
out and no one is going to shoot you. If they will shoot you, they will
have to shoot me first. I don’t mind sacrificing my life if you will
stop what you are doing. If I die stopping Boko Haram, I know I will go
to paradise.”
Aisha Wakil has been actively involved in efforts to end Boko Haram
through her NGO “Complete Care and Aid Foundation” aimed at restoring
peace to the northeast by rehabilitating the youth against warped
ideologies that mislead them to join the terror group.
The organisation is designed to provide a free feeding centre, fight
drug abuse, sex hawking, human trafficking, female genital mutilation
and de-worming among persons displaced by the insurgency.