The Chibok Community in Borno State has said the Federal Government and the military knows where the girls are being kept by Boko Haram.
The community dismissed claims by the government that there was no credible intelligence on the location of the girls, stressing that the government had seen three videos, as well as information on the girls’ whereabouts.
In an interview with Punch correspondent on Monday, spokesperson for the Kibaku Area Development Association, (Chibok community), Dr. Manasseh Allen said that the parents of the abducted girls would continue to demand the release of the girls from the government.
He said, “As far as we are concerned, the Nigerian government and the Nigerian military know where the girls are long before today because the first video was released, the second video was released and the third video was released. Amina Ali escaped and she told them where she had been all these years and since she escaped, she was debriefed that same day.
“After escaping from her abductors, she had provided enough information for the Nigerian government to know where the girls were being held all these while. Even if not all of them, at least the people she had been with over the past few years, she knew them.”
Allen, whose nieces were among the abducted girls, said the government had frustrated several moves to negotiate with the sect for the release of the girls.
He said, “We are not after where the girls are or whether the government knows where the girls are or not. Our demand has been one: the insurgents have been reaching out to Nigeria on the issue of swap and it is the same government that has been thwarting the swap move. So, what I can conclude is that the government knows where the girls are and what we are saying is, we want our girls back.”
The community dismissed claims by the government that there was no credible intelligence on the location of the girls, stressing that the government had seen three videos, as well as information on the girls’ whereabouts.
In an interview with Punch correspondent on Monday, spokesperson for the Kibaku Area Development Association, (Chibok community), Dr. Manasseh Allen said that the parents of the abducted girls would continue to demand the release of the girls from the government.
He said, “As far as we are concerned, the Nigerian government and the Nigerian military know where the girls are long before today because the first video was released, the second video was released and the third video was released. Amina Ali escaped and she told them where she had been all these years and since she escaped, she was debriefed that same day.
“After escaping from her abductors, she had provided enough information for the Nigerian government to know where the girls were being held all these while. Even if not all of them, at least the people she had been with over the past few years, she knew them.”
Allen, whose nieces were among the abducted girls, said the government had frustrated several moves to negotiate with the sect for the release of the girls.
He said, “We are not after where the girls are or whether the government knows where the girls are or not. Our demand has been one: the insurgents have been reaching out to Nigeria on the issue of swap and it is the same government that has been thwarting the swap move. So, what I can conclude is that the government knows where the girls are and what we are saying is, we want our girls back.”