Chibok people urge release of schoolgirls

The Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), Chibok, Borno State, yesterday appealed to relevant authorities to intensify search and rescue of the secondary schoolgirls kidnapped from the area.

Dr Pogu Bitrus, the chairman of the association, made the appeal at a news conference in Abuja yesterday.

More than 100 female students were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok on Monday night by suspected Boko Haram gunmen.

Bitrus said that the appeal became necessary as only 14 of the girls who escaped through their personal efforts had reunited with their parents.

He said that the rest of the students abducted by gunmen on Monday had yet to return to their parents.

Bitrus said the figures released by the military on Wednesday of these freed were “misleading as neither the parents nor the school authority has seen the girls at press time.” He said the anxiety generated by the misleading information had forced people of the area to mobilise and move to Sambisa forest in search of the missing students.

“The parents waited in vain up to this morning (Thursday) and they mobilised in the night and left for Sambisa forest at about 4 a.m. to look for their daughters,” he said.

He, however, said the effort of the parents was to complement that of the military.

Bitrus said the association had contacted the military in Maiduguri to verify the claim that 121 of the girls had been rescued, adding that no information was made available to them. “Our daughters, our girls have not returned to Chibok; we have not seen them, apart from those (14), who escaped, and no other information is made available,’’ he added. (NAN)