Dapchi village in Yobe State has been filled
with excitement since some abducted pupils at the Government Girls Science and
Technical College in the village regained their freedom.
They were
released in the early hours of Wednesday.
One hundred
and ten pupils were abducted from the school on February 19, 2018, by Boko
Haram insurgents, while efforts to locate them by security agencies failed
until they were released by their captors.
As of 8.50pm on Wednesday, the Federal Government had confirmed the release of
105 schoolgirls and a boy, making a total of 106 released persons.
Earlier, the
Federal Government in a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had said 76 of the girls had been freed.
Later in an
interview with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja,
Mohammed said 91 girls and a boy were freed by the terrorists.
However, in
another statement, the minister said the number had increased to 101 with the
documentation of more freed girls by security agencies.
The Minister
of Information and Culture, in a late afternoon interview with journalists at
the Air Force Base in Maiduguri, Bornu State, said the number had increased to
105.
The minister
attributed the earlier changing figures released by the government to the fact
that the “the girls went to their homes after they were released in Dapchi.
What we have now is 105 girls and a boy; that makes it 106 persons released
today (Wednesday).”
It was also
learnt that a pupil, a Christian, was still being held by the insurgents
because she refused to be converted to Islam.
Soldiers,
who were deployed in the town, were said to have made “tactical withdrawal” to
allow the terrorists to have access to the village.
The
military, which was apparently aware that a deal for the release of the
captives had been brokered, had reportedly stationed a large detachment of
soldiers in another part of the village since Tuesday.
Journalists
that stormed the town as early as 7am were initially turned back by soldiers
who allowed other motorists to have access to the village.
Some of the
journalists had come into the town on Wednesday to cover the solidarity visit
of Chibok schoolgirls’ parents to Dapchi.
They,
however, met excited villagers who informed them about the release of the
Dapchi schoolgirls.
After
journalists were prevented from entering Dapchi, some went to Jumbam, a
15-minute drive from Dapchi.
It was
gathered that five of the six freed girls were from the village, while the
sixth, who was also a pupil at the Dapchi school, was from Damaturu, the state
capital.
The
terrorists were said to have left the town with a warning that the parents must
not send their daughters back to school.
Vehicles
were later brought to transport the girls to Maiduguri under heavy security.
It was
gathered that the girls were immediately airlifted to Abuja aboard a military
transport plane.
They are
expected to meet with Buhari in Aso Villa, Abuja.
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