AN indigene of Plateau State, Miss Mwanret Daspan, a social worker in Maiduguri, Borno State, who was abducted by Boko Haram in December 2020, has been released by her abductors.
Governor Simon Lalong, while welcoming Daspan home at the Government House, Rayfield, Jos, said only God knows the predicament she had gone through in the hands of her captors.
The governor, who was represented by the deputy governor, Professor Sonni Tyoden, said: “It is, indeed, traumatic as Mwanret must have experienced excruciating emotional and mental chastisements in the hands of the terrorists.”
Lalong pointed out that there are many innocent people who had been in captivity and never returned to the warm embrace of their families.
He stressed that Daspan’s case is one among many instances in the state, just as he recalled the case of a Christian cleric from the state who spent months in Boko Haram captivity before he was released.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Rebecca Adar Sambo, who handed Daspan to the state government shortly after she was received at the Yakubu Gowon Airport, said “it is not an easy journey to be in captivity for 20 months.
“We thank God for His mercy, as well as security agents who have worked round the clock to ensure she regained her freedom.” Daspan, while speaking, thanked God, the Nigerian Army, the Plateau State government and all those who stood in the gap praying during the period of her travails.
Monday Daspan, who spoke on behalf of the family, appreciated God for the homecoming of their daughter.
He noted that many stories were written about her, but they kept hope alive. He recalled a time when she contacted the family and said she was in captivity in Chad Republic.