There is controversy
over the rescue of abducted school girls in Borno with the state government and
the school principal faulting the military’s claim that most of the pupils have
been freed
The claim by military
officials in Abuja on Wednesday that 107 abducted girls of Government Girls
Secondary School (GGSS) Chibok were freed is a huge lie, Borno government officials, the management of the
school and residents have said.
The Principal of
Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Asabe Kwambura, told PREMIUM TIMES
Thursday morning that the military’s claim was false.
“There is nothing in
the military statement that is true about our abducted girls,” Mrs. Kwambura said. “Up till now we are still
waiting and praying for the safe return of the students; all I know is that we
have only 14 of them, and the security people especially the Vigilante and the
well meaning volunteers of Gwoza are still out searching for them.”
She continued, “The military people too are in the bush
searching. So we have not received any information that they have gotten the
students yet. So let it be clear that all the information passed on the media
by the military concerning 107 girls is not true.
“I, as the principal
did not tell any body any figure on released students other than what our
Governor, His Excellency Kashim Shettima had informed the media.”
The Principal said she
was contacted by the military headquarters in Abuja yesterday and some person
was asking her to confirm the number of girls released.
“I told them that I don’t want to be seen to
be contradicting myself on that because what the governor said was what we know
about; and I told them there may be additional rescue of the girls, but up to
this moment we have not received any of them apart from what we had before,”
the principal said.
” What the governor
said is still the true picture of the whole issue and that information given by
the military is totally wrong.”
The military
spokesperson at the Defence Headquarters, Major General Chris Olukolade, had
Wednesday issued a statement claiming
that 107 abducted girls were freed; adding that only eight of the girls were
still missing and the military was searching for them.
He also claimed that a
member of the Boko Haram sect that participated in the abduction was also
nabbed by the military.
Borno state Governor,
ashim Shettima was also quoted by the
BBC Hausa service this morning faulting the claims of the military.
He reportedly said, “We have recovered 14 of the
girls and we have announced a N50 million reward for any credible information
that will help us get our girls released and rejoined with their families.”
PREMIUM TIMES also
enquired from a top official of the Department of State Service (DSS) in
Maiduguri who ordinarily should know about the rescue of the girls.
“We have no such
information apart from the 14 that escaped; if there is anything like that, no
one would want to hide it from the media; may be the military have their own
intel on that, which we probably are not aware of for now,” he said.
Some relatives and
parents of the abducted girls said they
were not happy with the way the military “is misleading the world about the
innocent girls”.
A female senior Civil
Servant with the Borno state government, who requested not to be named said,
“What kind of nonsense is this for God sake? Why are they playing politics with
the lives of these innocent girls; I had just called some of my relatives in Chibok
and they told me none of the girls had been released apart from the 14 that
escaped back to town. We hope the military is not doing some thing funny with
this very sensitive issue”.
When contacted late
last night, Mr. Olukolade insisted it was the principal of the school who told
the military that only eight girls were now missing.
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