About 128 suspected Boko Haram detainees were today released to the Borno state government in Maiduguri by the Nigerian military. [slideshow]41962[/slideshow]
Speaking during the ceremony, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen TY Buratai, said the suspects were set free after having been thoroughly investigated by the security agencies.
The group comprised 109 men and seven women, as well as 12 under age children, three Chadians and a Cameroonian.
“After thorough investigation by security agencies [of] these innocent people [we] release them to Borno state government and they are free from any accusations and blames,'' Buratai said.
Thanking the Nigerian army for the release of the detainees, Gov. Kashim Shettima urged them not to disappoint the army and the state government, emphasizing that they should pray for peace to return to the state and Nigeria at large.
Our reporter who spoke to some of the released Boko Haram female suspects gathered that they were forced to marry the insurgents in Sambisa forest, and are now pregnant.
Fatima Usman,18, who was abducted by Boko Haram one year ago along Kawuri - Bama road to Sambisa and was forced into such a marriage, recounted her experience, saying she and her sister were abducted on their way to Bama last year.
“They asked me to marry them but I refused, they insisted [then] they did mass wedding of more than 200 girls at Sambisa during last year Sallah. Their leader asked, where is the lady [who] refuse to marry us? Someone pointed at me; that was how I was forced to marry one of them.'' she said in tears.
Another freed detainee, Tabitha Adamu, 26, said that Boko Haram fighters killed her husband two months after their wedding at Pulka in Gwoza local government area of Borno state last year.
''They abducted me after my husband was shot dead in my presence [on] 25 January, 2013. I have been with them in Sambisa forest. They forced me to marry and I am 7 months pregnant. I don't know where to go and I don't know the whereabouts of my younger ones or my parents, '' she said, crying .