Murtala Muhammed Foundation takes over sponsorship of Chibok girls studying in US

The Federal Government announced on Friday that the Murtala Muhammed Foundation has taken over the full sponsorship of five out of the 10 students of Government Secondary School Chibok, Borno State currently studying in the United States of America.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Aisha Alhassan, made this known shortly after meeting with parents of the girls in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

Alhassan said the Foundation took over the sponsorship after it was approached by government, explaining that the girls were part of the 10 taken to the US by some Non-Governmental Organisations on the guise of taking them to school.

Alhassan said: “What happened was that the girls escaped from Boko Haram captivity and returned home to Chibok.

“But some NGOs and religious organisations approached the parents with offers to take them away from the area due to the trauma.”

Alhassan added that the parents accepted to release the girls without notifying government and that the NGOs took the girls to the US on the guise of sending them to school.

She said: “Government was not part of the arrangement because nobody was contacted.”

She, however, said the parents petitioned the Federal Government that they had received negative reports on the girls.

Alhassan noted: “The parents sent information to government that they heard that the girls were not in school in the US and that government should intervene in the matter.

“We investigated the matter through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian Embassy in the US and found it to be true.

“Our investigations corroborated the parents’ claim that the girls were not taken to school, rather they were being used by the NGOs to make money.

“But government does not take responsibility over someone else’s mistake.”

Alhassan said President Muhammadu Buhari ordered her to meet with the parents over the issue, adding: “So, I have come here to meet with the parents and we have discussed.

“I have told them the options available.

“What we can do is to talk to some donor agencies that we are working with so that they can take up the sponsorship of the girls.

“Consequently, I am happy to say that the Murtala Muhammad Foundation has taken over the sponsorship of five out of the 10 girls.

“They have found schools for them and they are doing well.”

Alhassan noted that the remaining five girls were still in the custody of two individuals in the US, saying: “We understood that a white man has two of the girls, while one Emmanuel, a Nigerian, is keeping three, also in the US.”