The delay in freeing the over 200 girls seized from Government Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State, may have exposed them to radicalisation by their captors, who are now using them for suicide bombings.The source spoke about the possibility that the girls had been indoctrinated by the terrorists in the last three months of their captivity, hynotised and sent into various parts of Nigeria and beyond with a view to carrying out deadly missions.
Serial attacks carried out by female bombers in Kano, last week, lent credence to the claim. The source, who has contacts with the Boko Haram leadership, pointed out that it may be difficult to change radical orientation of the girls, who may now see their malevolent disposition as an act of righteousness.
“It was clear from the outset that the girls would not come out the same, after being kept with their unwanted hosts for a long time”.
Although the Federal Government said, last Wednesday, that the Chibok girls were not among the female bombers, its spokesman did not provide any evidence to prove his claim. At a media briefing in Abuja, Coordinator
of the National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, tried to ward off the suggestion that the 219 school girls currently in the captivity of Boko Haram insurgents could have turned suicide bombers.
It will be recalled that few days after the abduction of the girls, a human rights activist, who had taken part in failed bids to broker a truce between the Federal Government and Boko Haram leadership, Shehu Sani, had raised the alarm that the girls could be indoctrinated if not urgently freed.