Boko Haram: A Year Later, How One Family Is Coping With Their Daughter's Kidnapping
— -- One year on from the day Boko Haram fighters swept into the town of Chibok capturing more than 200 schoolgirls, the families of the kidnapped girls are becoming increasingly desperate with government efforts to bring them home.
The family of Docus Yakubu says they will never forget her. Her father, Yakubu Lamidu Ponna told ABC News: “I can’t forget Docus, she is my daughter”.
Docus Yakubu would now be 17 years old. Her family has not heard from, or seen her, since the horrific events which unfolded one year ago. They are marking this anniversary by traveling to the Nigerian capital Abuja, to join the #BringBackOurGirls protest and to call on the country’s new leaders to do more to see them returned.
Speaking to ABC News, Yakubu Lamidu Ponna estimated that between 200 to 300 family members of the missing girls are in Abuja today.
The families are still plagued by the same fears sparked by the kidnapping one year ago. Yakubu said, “We are worried about them because we don't know where they are."
The families have become hugely frustrated with Nigerian government efforts to find them.
“We are not happy at all," he said. “They are telling us lies about the girls. First they tell us they know where they are and that they will bring them back, but then they do not."
Speaking from Abuja, Yakubu said he wants "people to help us, we want the U.N., we want America to help the Nigerian government, because they have not been telling us the truth. This government of Nigeria, they are not willing to tell us the truth."
Docas Yakubu is described as tall, slim, with a long face. She has many friends and is popular. Her family says she was sitting exams for her arts subjects when she was kidnapped. Her ambition was to become a midwife or a nurse.
Following the kidnapping, her mother Esther developed serious health problems and stopped eating. It took police officers almost a full month after the kidnapping to come and visit the Yakubu family and ask for photographic evidence of their missing daughter.
In devastating news for the families President-elect Muhammadu Buhari said today that he can not promise to find the 219 who are still missing.
"We do not know if the Chibok girls can be rescued. Their whereabouts remain unknown," Buhari said. "As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them."
