BOKO Haram is alleged to still be holding the over 200 school pupils abducted from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in the town of Gwoza in Borno State according to a former detainee who managed to escape from the sect.

In April last year, Boko Haram abducted the girls from their boarding school in the middle of the night and have held them ever since. Despite the Nigerian military regaining a lot of the ground Boko Haram held over recent weeks, there are still no sign of the kidnapped schoolgirls. 

Mbutu Papka, a woman who was recently freed after eight months in the sect’s captivity, said she was transferred from Mdita to a fairly tolerable facility in Gwoza where the abducted girls were being held. She added no one was allowed anywhere near the specific location of the abducted girls, which was being guarded round the clock. 

Ms Papka said: “In the camp at Gwoza, there were clear demarcations between where people were kept. The Chibok girls, other captives and Boko Haram members and their family members all had their separate areas secured, although the security in the area where the girls are kept is visibly different and much tighter. 

“When we got to Gwoza, things changed because there were facilities there and the place was 10 times better than Mdita. We had a normal life in Gwoza, except the trauma of living in captivity." 

Apparently Ms Papka was seized alongside many others when Boko Haram attacked Gwoza on July 4, 2014 and taken to Mdita, a remote village near the notorious Sambisa Forest, bordering Askira Uba and Damboa. She and many others, including children were kept in Mdita for five months before they were taken to Gwoza, where she was held for another three months before being released on March 15. 

She added that the facilities provided for them in Mdita were so poor that some captives died of ill health. However, in Gwoza, things were much improved as the food and facilities were much better. 

Ms Papka said: "Whatever we wanted to eat, they were provided. They would bring water, firewood, etc and leave them outside and they even provided perfume for anyone who requested for it.” 

She added that there was a Redeemed Christian Church of God pastor who was killed during the attack on their village and his wife was abducted with them. This pastor's wife died in Mdita due to the condition of the place and the death of her husband. 

This pastor’s wife was said to have had diabetes and had been on a special diet, which could not be provided by the insurgents. Adding that she said she could not speak for the abducted girls, Ms Papka said she and the other women abducted were neither raped nor assaulted, saying the insurgents lived with their wives and children in the Gwoza camp.