Boko Haram releases 82 Chibok girls

No information on the girls’ release – Presidency

The Boko Haram sect has released 82 of the abducted female students from Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, Sahara Reporters reports.

Quoting military sources, the online medium further claimed on Saturday that the abducted Chibok girls had regained their freedom, following a negotiation between the federal government and the sect.

The source was quoted as saying that the girls were in Banki town in Borno State awaiting airlift to an unknown destination.

But when contacted over the veracity of the Chibok girls’ release, the spokesman to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Femi Adesina, simply told Daily Times that, “We have no information on the Chibok girls.”

President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly stated that his government was making efforts to secure the release of the girls and urged Nigerians not to lose hope over the girls.

He promised to reunite abducted girls with their parents.

Speaking through Adesina during the third anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls, Buhari said that his administration was determined to secure the release of the Chibok girls and others forcefully abducted from their homes and communities and retake the territories from the insurgents.

“We have had reason to celebrate the return of twenty-four of them and thousands of other Nigerians who were forcibly abducted by the terrorists.

“Furthermore, government is in constant touch through negotiations, through local intelligence to secure the release of the remaining girls and other abducted persons unharmed.

“We have reached out to their captors, through local and international intermediaries, and we are ever ready to do everything within our means to ensure the safe release of all the girls,” Adesina added.

The Boko Haram sect had on April 14, 2014, abducted 276 girls. Out of that number, 81 have regained freedom, while 195 are still in captivity.