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.
--PUNCH
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