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| Governor Shettima |
Kashim Shettima, Borno state governor, on May 19, Tuesday, disclosed where the missing Chibok girls were likely held.The children were abducted more than a year ago. Since then, the local and global forces have made dozens of attempts to locate the victims.The most sensational breakthrough was believed to have been recorded in May of 2014. Alex Badeh, the Chief of Defence Staff, said that the military had discovered the girls’ whereabouts.
Time was passing by and the children remained in captivity. The military authorities were under attack over not being able to rescue the hostages.In a recent period several people who escaped from Boko Haram have said they saw some of the girls in Gwoza, Borno state.However, the fresh claim made by Governor Shettima during Abuja conference might become the final step on the way to the Chibok girls rescue.Shettima said there was every tendency that the female students were being held in bunkers inside Sambisa Forest, Vanguard reports.The governor, represented by Bulama Mala Gubio, the secretary of Borno Elders Forum, said:“We are suspecting that Chibok girls are living with the insurgents in bunkers, I think the military must carry out their operations beyond the surface earth.“They (Boko Haram) were also known to have dug tunnels to enable them move from house to house. So, having been left unchallenged for such a long time, such possibilities cannot be ruled out which poses serious obstacles within the forest.“The insurgents used their bases in the Sambisa Forest to launch deadly attacks and make quick retreat to their base which enabled them capture and take over control of all the local government areas bordering Nigeria with Cameroon, Chad and Niger, thus effectively cutting off the three neighbouring countries thereby declaring what they assumed was their their independent territory (caliphate).”Leadership adds that Shettima urged the incoming government to transform the forest and put it to profitable use after totally ridding of terrorists there.“Unless and only if the Sambisa Forest is effectively recovered from the occupation of the terrorists can we think of defeating the Boko Haram and begin to comprehensively embark on a holistic approach for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the North-East. In fact, at several stages, the Borno state government had intervened to reconstruct destroyed schools, health centres, homes, markets and so on, only for the insurgents to attack and destroy them again.”The governor also criticized President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration over neglecting the region affected by insurgency.“As a government, we have spent over N600 million, but all we have received from the Federal Government is N200 million. The same Federal Government has approved over N2 billion on dancers (entertainers) as loan.”Within the past month the Nigerian troops have rescued hundreds of women and children from Sambisa Forest. The operation in the insurgents’ hideout continues. After Shettima’s claims hopes emerged that the Chibok girls would be freed soon.
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