and volunteers combed the bushes on
Wednesday in search of over 100 schoolgirls
abducted on Monday by Boko Haram Islamists
in Chibok, Borno State.
The rescue teams, aided by surveillance
helicopters, were said to have moved deeper
into the vast forest that extends into
neighbouring Cameroon and other states in
the North-East.
A senator representing Borno South in the
National Assembly, Ali Ndume, made this
known to the Cable News Network just as
President Goodluck Jonathan summoned
military chiefs and governors to emergency
security meetings on Thursday at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Before the Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, made
this known, the Federal Government had said
it was not yet in possession of full details of
the abduction of the girls from their hostel
in the Government Girls' Secondary School,
Chibok.
Ten of the girls escaped from an un-identified
camp used by the Boko Haram insurgents on
Wednesday morning. Four had earlier escaped
when one of the vehicles conveying them to
the camp broke down on Tuesday morning.
Reuters quoted one of the escapees as saying
that the insurgents deceived them into
thinking they were soldiers who had come to
evacuate them from their hostel to avoid
being harmed.
"When we saw these gunmen, we thought they
were soldiers. They told all of us to come and
walk to the gates and we followed their
instructions," 18-year-old Godiya Isaiah, said.
According to Reuters , when the insurgents
started ransacking the school stores and
setting fire to the buildings on the school
premises, the girls realised they were being
kidnapped.
"We were crying," Isaiah said, recounting how
she jumped from one of the trucks and ran
into a nearby bush.
The Borno State Commissioner for Education,
Inuwa Kubo, said five other girls who also
managed to escape told the same story.
He said, "They went into the bus
unsuspecting. They were lured into the
vehicle because they were told that the school
was going to be attacked."
Governor Kashim Shettima, who promised to
give N50m to anyone with information that
could lead to the release of the remaining
girls, also narrated how some of them
escaped from their abductors.
He told journalists during a news conference
in Maiduguri that the girls were asked by the
insurgents to be involved in the preparation
of meals and they took the opportunity of
washing plates to flee the camp.
The governor added that he had been in
constant touch with the principal of the
school, Asabe Aliyu; the Chibok Local
Government Chairman, Babagana Lawan; and
District Head, Modu Lawan, over the
incident.
Our correspondent in Borno State later
gathered that the 14 pupils were in the
custody of the leaders of Chibok.
Shettima said the school had opened a
register for parents to record their missing
children and wards, stressing that so far, 50
parents had complained.
He said he would have been in Chibok but
for security advice which indicated that
military operations were ongoing there.
He said, "I want to go to Chibok but was
advised against it because of military
operations going on around there."
Shettima said he would not rest until all the
abducted students were freed and reunited
with their families.
"The task before us is how to get the pupils
back to their respective families," he said,
adding that he was optimistic that the
security crisis in the state would not "last
forever."
But one of the parents said her family had
resorted to praying for the release of her
daughter and niece.
"They took away my daughter and my niece.
We fear for their safety in the hands of those
merciless people that take delight in killing
and destruction. I don't know what to do. The
whole family is confused and we have turned
to prayers which is all we have," she said.
Abati said the President regretted the the
pain, sorrow and anguish brought upon many
Nigerian families in recent days as a
consequence of recurring security challenges
which the nation was contending with.
The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran
Maku, had before Abati released his
statement, told State House correspondents
after the weekly Federal Executive Council
meeting that the government had yet to get
full information on the abducted girls.
Maku said the council only relied on media
reports of the abduction when it was said at
the FEC meeting.
The minister however said efforts were
ongoing to rescue the pupils and apprehend
their abductors.
While condemning the abduction, Maku
described it as a call to action for Nigerians
who should be ready to work with
government and security agencies to nip the
activities of criminals in the bud.
The minister said, "On the kidnapped pupils
which we condemned, I also know that every
effort is being made to locate them and those
who kidnapped them.
"Our security services are on manhunt for the
girls who have been kidnapped.
"Council did not have the full reports as to
the details of how it took place other than
media reports, but we will get the details.
"The thing with terrorists is that they go to
where you least suspect them to go. They go
to areas where they think nobody is looking
at, they go to soft target."
Also in Abuja, the Director of Defence
Information, Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, said in
an electronic mail on Wednesday that the
Special Forces were already closing in on the
abductors.
Olukolade put the total number of girls
abducted from the school at 129.
He also said that troops had restored law and
order in Wukari, Taraba State and arrested 14
armed men who participated in the crisis.
The Defence spokesman said 25 houses were
burnt and 200 persons displaced in the attack.
Olukolade later said that more of the
abducted girls regained their freedom on
Wednesday evening.
The Defence spokesman, who initially did not
give the number of those freed, said only
eight of them were still missing.
He added that one of the terrorists who
abducted the girls had been captured.
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