How One Chibok Schoolgirl Rejected Freedom, Says She Has a Husband

One of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 and who had the opportunity to be released on Saturday chose to stay with her husband, the spokesman for Nigeria’s president said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said officials originally had been negotiating for the release of 83 girls, but one said she wanted to remain.

“One of the girls refused to join the released girls,” Shehu told The Associated Press. “She said, ‘I am happy where I am. I have a husband.'”

The other young women, held for more than three years, are in Abuja with government officials who are supervising their re-entry into society.

The government has published a list of the girls’ names, and parents in Chibok, some 900 kilometers northeast of the capital, are slowly learning if their daughters were among those freed.

The girls were released in exchange for five Boko Haram commanders, a government official said Sunday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Neither the government nor Boko Haram, which has links to the Islamic State group, gave details about the exchange.