16 abducted women, kids yet to be released, says Adamawa lawmaker
Contrary to the claims by Nigerian soldiers to have rescued the 16 women and children abducted by Boko Haram last week, a lawmaker representing Madagali Constituency in the Adamawa state House of Assembly (ADHA), Hon Emmanuel Tsandu has refuted the recent reports by the Nigerian army, saying that the abductees were still under the custody of the insurgents.
Tsandu said that the initial source of the reports claiming that the military had freed the women were baseless and contrary to what had been widely reported in many quarters, as Boko Haram were the custodian of the women.
“According to other sources that the 14 women and 2 children were rescued is not true. The women are still under the custody of Boko Haram, I’m maintaining a constant link with my people, all the villages heads, the vigilante groups leaders who have been supporting the soldiers to fight the insurgents reliably confirmed to me the women were nowhere to be found”, Tsandu said
He called on the military to do a thorough work in mopping up the Madagali as indicators were showing that Boko Haram, because of the terrain nature of the area, were still hiding in the caves in the mountains and launching some intermittent attacks on some villages.
The anticipation of about 56,000 displaced Nigerian returnees from Cameroun is raising a lot of questions as to whether they are true Nigerians and free from any suspicious of belonging to the Boko Haram group.
Tsandu was of the opinion that government should close all camps, letting everyone to go to his or her own community; that way all the security agencies would concentrate well on protecting life and property and it would give room for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to farm well to sustain themselves.
This is coming when the Chief of Air staff, AVM Sadique Abubakar,on Sunday told the people of Adamawa State that Boko Haram had come to an end, and that he was bent on mopping up all places initially attacked by the insurgents as the security was in the final stage of cleaning up the ravaged areas.
