Chibok Community denies release of abducted Chibok girls

A bus conveying 57 Chibok schoolgirls that escaped from Boko Haram was intercepted by the military in Biu, Borno State, on Tuesday.

The Chairman, Chibok Community, Abuja, Tsambido Abana, told our correspondent that the girls were being taken to Maiduguri for safety reason, when their bus was stopped by troops, who assumed that the girls were the ones in Boko Haram captivity.

According to him, the girls were those who lucky to escape from the insurgents about a week after their school was raided and about 250 of them were abducted at night.

He said, “It is not true that the girls have been released. What happened was that the 34 girls that escaped from Boko Haram (one week after their abduction), were being taken to Maiduguri in a Coaster bus when soldiers in Biu stopped them and mistook them for the ones in Boko Haram captivity.

“The 219 girls have not been released by the insurgents; we are still praying and hoping for their release.”

Another Chibok indigene, Peter Illiya, stated that information available to him indicated that 57 Chibok girls who were being taken to their new school in Kaduna, were intercepted by troops, who became suspicious of the huge number of girls in the buses.

He explained that the military escorted the buses back to Maiduguri and residents, who saw the convoy assumed that the 219 girls in Boko Haram captivity had been released.

Illiya said, “The military intercepted the buses conveying the 57 girls in Biu and escorted them back to Maiduguri. On seeing them, residents thought they were the ones in Boko Haram captivity, and so the news spread that the 219 girls abducted by the sect had been released. They have not been released.”

There were some reports on Tuesday that the girls, who were abducted by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014, had been released.

According to the reports, two Coastal buses (with posters of the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kasim Shettima) loaded with the girls were driven into the headquarters of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, on Tuesday evening.