President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the payment of N164.7 million as school fees of the freed 106 Chibok girls studying at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa state.
Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, who announced this in a statement on Sunday, said the money is for the second-semester fees of the girls.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is the founder of the school
The girls were freed after Boko Haram insurgents abducted 276 of them from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, back in April 2014.
Shehu said as a result of their experiences while in captivity, they were traumatised and afflicted by various ailments, hence a rehabilitation programme was organised for them.
“Having successfully achieved the desired goals of the rehabilitation and reintegration programme, with recorded significant improvement in the academic performance of the girls, in September, a final send-off party was organised for the 106 Chibok girls and they were subsequently moved to the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola for their foundation studies and continuation of their education,” the statement read.
“The AUN had successfully established a foundation school for 14 out of the 57 Chibok girls who escaped while the rest of their classmates were taken to the Sambisa forest by Boko Haram.
“The absorption of the 106 girls into the school marked the beginning of their integration into the larger Nigerian society, thus fulfilling president Buhari’s promise of providing the best education for them.
“Although they have been officially handed over to their parents, the federal government will continue to be responsible for the payment of the Chibok girls’ school fees right up to their graduation from the school.”
In 2014, Atiku had announced that the AUN foundation is offering some of the girls full scholarship in its academy.
“The @AUNigeria Foundation’s #EducateOurGirls campaign will provide full scholarship for Chibok girls who escaped from Boko Haram,” he had tweeted then.
