Chibok: More Confusion Over Actual Number Of Abducted School Girls
SAN FRANCISCO, April 21, (THEWILL) â€' Confusion and controversy still surround the. Boko Haram abduction of some school girls at the Government Girls Secondary School,Chibok, Borno State.
Almost a week after the incident, the actual number of the abducted girls is not certain even as the number of those that escaped from the den of their abductors is yet to be verified.
On Monday, the parents of the female students lamented that 234 students were still missing with only 39 of the girls released so far.
The military had started the confusion as it insisted that most of the abducted girls have been freed with only eight still missing.
But the Borno State Government and the principal of the school, Asabe Kwabura, were to later fault the military, saying out of the missing 129 girls, only 14 have been released so far thus forcing the Defence Headquarters to recant.
However on Sunday, the state government said the 52 girls that were supposed to be at the school's hostel on the day of the abduction have either escaped or came back from their various homes.
But the parents told Governor Kashim Shettima that only 39 students have been freed with 234 others still being held.
One of the parents, Shettima Haruna,told Shettima when he visited Chibok on Monday that they have been having sleepless night since the incident happened, saying at a time they had move into the Sambisa Forest to rescue their daughters but all their efforts yielded no result.
'We want to seize this opportunity to thank you for the visit and for identifying with us at this sorrowful moment, but the truth of the matter is that only 39 out of about 250 students were so far rescued, and we want to emphasise that we are not happy with this development, in as much as we continue to pray for the safe return of our daughters, we are appealing to government and our security operatives to please intensify search of our missing innocent children,' he said.
Also speaking, another parent, Mallam Amos Chiroma, said they saw a lot of strange things in the Sambisa Forest while searching for the students.
'When we were in the bush at Sambisa, we came across different make -shift camps suspected to be deserted by the insurgents,' he said, adding that they had to make a retreat after a futile search.
The parents, who could not hold back their tears, appealed to the state government to help them find their abducted girls.
Most of the school buildings in Chibok had been razed to the ground by the rampaging terrorists.
The senator representing Borno South in the National Assembly, Senator Ali Ndume, who was also weeping as he consoled the parents, urged them not to relent in their prayer for the safe return of the school girls.
He added that government was doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of the girls even as the governor promised that his government will deploy all human and material resources towards rescuing the girls.
'They can burn physical structures but cannot destroyed our souls Patience is the ultimate solution to the problem and I will ask us to be patient and we would soon get over this,' Shettima said.