Missing Chibok Girls Now 219, Says Borno Govt

SAN FRANCISCO, May 28, (THEWILL) â€' The Borno State Government has put the total figure of the missing Chibok girls at 219.

The state Commissioner for Education, Hon. Inuwa Kubo, was said to have clarified this while briefing the Presidential Fact-finding Committee on the missing Chibok schoolgirls in Maiduguri, the state capital, at the weekend.

According to Kubo, the number of girls earlier thought to have been abducted by Boko Haram insurgents but have now been reunited with their family has risen to 57, adding that four more girls who recently escaped from Boko Haram captivity have been reunited with their families.

Fifty-three of the girls had earlier escaped from their abductors. The Commissioner, who appeared ‎before the committee last Friday in Maiduguri, was said to have disclosed that the four girls were discovered after Governor Kashim Shettima directed the Ministry of Education to open data pages for families of all the girls which should include names and pictures of the girls, class, age and the pictures of parents.

He was said to have informed the committee that during the data capturing and visits to the traumatised parents, it was discovered that four girls who were among those declared missing had actually been reunited with their parents but the parents failed to inform the school authority.

A total of 276 girls were initially said to have been abducted based on the reports by the state Police Commissioner and the state Director of Department of State Security (DSS).

Out of the number, 53 were reportedly found and 228 were missing but with the four girls now discovered, the number of the missing girls now stand at 219 with those found at 57.