A series of black Land Cruisers pulls through the gleaming white gates and the press pack moves in, crowding the vehicles. Amina Ali gingerly steps out of the back of one, led by the hand, her face covered in a black headscarf with silver sequins.
She is hustled past the cameras, her four-month old girl, Safiya, carried gently by a government official behind her.
Amina is brought into a wood-paneled conference room with high-backed leather chairs with her mother, brother and Safiya.
She swivels the chair around, turning her back to the cameras, and to the neatly printed name card with the Nigerian coat of arms on the mahogany desk: “Amina Ali: Chibok Girl.”
In less than three days, Amin has gone from being held hostage by the brutal terror group Boko Haram, where she had suffered for more than two years, to the presidential villa in Nigeria’s capital.
She was snatched by Boko Haram fighters on April 14, 2014 from the Chibok secondary school with more than 270 young girls. Around 57 girls escaped in the early hours. Some 219 have been missing since.
Now, 218.
Officials say that Amina wandered for six days with her “husband” after she managed to escape Boko Haram’s clutches. She was tired, filthy and malnourished.
But alive.
The conference room is packed with powerful governors, politicians and officials.
President Muhammadu Buhari arrives.
“Like all Nigerians and many others around the world, I am delighted that Amina Ali of the missing Chibok girls has regained her freedom, but my feelings are tinted with deep sadness of the horrors that has had to go through,” he says.
The family stands up and Amina takes off her veil. President Buhari takes young Safiya in his arms for the photo opportunity. Flashes pop.
Then, Amina and her family are whisked away.
