The #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the identity of Serah Luka, who was among 97 women and children rescued in the Damboa area of Borno State on Thursday morning during military operations against insurgents.
A statement by Army spokesperson, Col Sani Usman, on Thursday said the girl is “one of the Chibok Government Secondary School girls that were abducted on 14th April 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorists.
“Her name is Miss Serah Luka, who is number 157 on the list of the abducted school girls. She is believed to be the daughter of Pastor Luka. During debriefing, the girl revealed that she was a JSS1 student of the school at the time they were abducted.
“She further added that she hails from Madagali, Adamawa State. She averred that she reported at the school barely two months and one week before her unfortunate abduction along with other girls over two years ago.”
The announcement about Serah’s rescue came just hours after the first girl to be found, Amina Ali, met President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Head of the Abducted Chibok Girls Parents group, Yakubu Nkeki, however, said that unlike the first announcement about Amina, the military did not contacted them beforehand to establish Serah’s identity.
Only two girls with the surname Luka were on the list of abducted girls and none was from Madagali, which has been repeatedly attacked by the rebels, he added.
Contrary to the military’s statement that the teenager was believed to be a Christian pastor’s daughter, Nkeki said there were only four priests on the list of parents and none was called Luka.
“I can say in my capacity as the head of the Chibok Abducted Girls Parents group that this girl is not among the abducted Chibok girls,” he told AFP.
In its own statement, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign group said: “According to Haruna Mutali a community leader in Chibok, their background checks have revealed that this second returnee, Miss Serah Luka was an SSS 1 learner at GSS Chibok, who was abducted by the insurgents in her home in Madagali.
The 219 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Chibok were said to be in SSS 3.
“Every citizen returned is victory for us all,” the group added.
“We appeal to the humanity in us to stay positively focused on emerging developments. We wish to advice caution in disseminating information too promptly, as we appeal that we respect the human dignity of our returnees and their loved ones, as we engage on this topic.”
On Friday, Director of Defence Information, Brigadier-General Rabe Abubakar, declined to address whether Luka was part of that abduction.
“We shouldn’t focus on whether she is one of the Chibok girls or not,” Rabe said. “The important thing is that we are pursuing Boko Haram and rescuing human beings on a daily basis. We should be allowed to be concentrate on rescuing other people in our operations.”
