The Member of Parliament (MP) for Juaben Constituency Ama Pomaa Boateng welcomed home 81 Chibok girls who were kidnapped in April 2014 by Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Ama Pomaa Boateng who is attending the 2017 First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament of the Fourth Legislature in Abuja doubles as the Vice-Chair of the Gender, Women Empowerment & Social Protection Committee and ECOFEPA said she was blessed to have met them.
The Committee, as well as the ECOFEPA members, joined her to make cash and in-kind donations to the girls who were released by Boko Haram last week.
Eighty-two Chibok schoolgirls were released after negotiations between the terrorist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government, the office of Nigerian President Buhari said.
A government official close to the negotiations told CNN the freed girls were in military custody in the town of Banki in northeast Nigeria.
After their release, they were transferred to the capital, Abuja, where they had medical checks and reunited with their families.
They are believed to be among the 276 girls, ages 16 to 18, forced from their beds by Boko Haram militants in the middle of the night in April 2014.
The kidnapping from a boarding school in the town of Chibok sparked global outrage and the social media movement #BringBackOurGirls.
In her address to the girls at an undisclosed location in Abuja, the MP reiterated the need for the girls to continue their education.
She spoke of what a blessing it is for her to have met all the 82 girls, who were recently freed, personally.
The Juabeng MP encouraged them the girls and their parents asking for support for them to deal with the terrible experience they have been through.
Ms Boateng assured them the support of the ECOWAS encouraging the girls to go back to school, dream big and not let their experience define who they become.
She pleaded for society to welcome them back and give them all the necessary support they need not stimatise them in any way.
She also assured them of Ghana’s support through various petitions to the Nigerian embassy in Ghana and encouraged the ECOWAS communities to make girl child education a priority.
The MP offered to mentor and help them integrate into society
She thanked all parents, Nigerian government, international communities, institutions and individuals who in their diverse ways supported for the release of the girls.
Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim
