By Nuel Suji – The Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram, has released a batch of more than 80 of the Chibok high school girls who were abducted in mid-April 2014, Saharareporters, an online news platform has reported.
Quoting a top military source, the media outfit said 82 abducted chibok girls were released Saturday night after further negotiations between the Islamist group and the Muhammadu Buhari administration. The source said he was not in a position to disclose the terms of the agreement that led to today’s mass release of the Chibok school girls.
Our source revealed that that the 82 girls who just regained their freedom are currently in Banki town in Borno state awaiting airlift to an unknown destination.
The source added that once the girls are secured in a new location they would be debriefed, undergo psychological and medical tests and then be reunited with their families.
Only recently, at the third anniversary of the abducted school girls, Buhari had reaasured Nigerians of his determination to secure the release of the girls.
After much pressure from the Bring Back Our Girls campaigners, the government, through its spokesman, Femi Adesina, promised to re-unite the girls alive to their parents.
“We were determined to secure the release of the Chibok girls and others forcefully abducted from their homes and communities and retake the occupied territories,” Mr. Adesina had stated.
“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.”
On April 14, 2014, Nigerians woke up to the news that the Boko Haram terrorists have abducted about 276 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
Two of the girls initially escaped from captivity while about 80 have since then regained freedom.
