The chairman of the Chibok local government area of Borno State, Hon Bana Lawan, has called on the federal government to give special package in terms of scholarship to the abducted schoolgirls as soon as they are rescued.
The chairman, who made the appeal during Stakeholders Validation Meeting of Draft Humanitarian Response Plan for Chibok, Borno State, organised by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Abuja, added that the girls should be relocated outside Borno State to continue their education to guard against stigmatisation and enable them regain their confidence.
“I will also want to appeal to government to prepare a welcome package for those girls. I believe they will be back, they will return safely; something like maybe scholarship for them at a school away from Borno State to help them avoid stigmatisation which will certainly happen.
Those girls will need to marry one day and going away will enable them marry someone else and attending another school will enable them regain their confidence,” he said.
Represented by the Director of Personnel Management (DPM), Musa Elijah Kolo, Lawan clarified that out of the 221 abducted girls, 57 have so far escaped while 164 are still missing.
He said Chibok local government is safe contrary to the widely held opinion. The Director-General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani-Sidi, said Sani-Sidi added that it was expected to validate a draft humanitarian response plan for Chibok and has become imperative to build synergy as well as strengthen coordination mechanism for humanitarian assistance to the affected persons and community.
