Parents, school principal say no girl was rescued in Chibok

Yesterday evening we all heard the happy news that over a hundred secondary school girls abducted on Monday evening at Government Girls Secondary School Chibok had been freed by the military. But unfortunately this information is not true.

Parents of the missing girls, the principal of the school and Borno state governor told reporters this morning that the military lied about the rescue operation as the girls were still missing.

Below is what the principal of the school, Mrs Asabe Kwambura, told Premium Times this morning:

"There is nothing in the military statement that is true about our abducted girls. 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. 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.” Continue...

Borno state Governor, ashim Shettima told the BBC Hausa service this morning that only 14 girls had escaped

“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.” 

Military spokesperson Major General Chris Olukolade, had issued a statement yesterday claiming that over 100 abducted girls had been freed and only 8 were missing. But when contacted again, Olukayode said it was the principal of the school who told the military that only eight girls were now missing.

The Principal defended herself by saying;

"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.What the governor said is still the true picture of the whole issue and that information given by the military is totally wrong.”