More abducted female schoolgirls released -DHQ

The authorities of the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, have said more of the students who were abducted from the Government Girl Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on Tuesday night have been freed.The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, in a statement on Wednesday said the Special Forces were already closing in on those believed to have carried out the abduction.Olukolade put the total number of girls abducted from the school at 129.The Defence spokesman however explained that the military was not putting a figure to those released because some who escaped went home.“More of the abducted students of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State have this afternoon been freed as troops pursuing the terrorists close in on the den of those believed to have carried out the attack.“A total of 129 students had earlier been abducted by a group of terrorists,” the statement read in part.He said that the troops in the pursuit of those holding the insurgents were being careful in order to rescue as many of the abducted schoolgirls as possible.He said that the military would have opted for an aerial operation in the pursuit of the abductors, buthad to consider the issue of safety.Olukolade also said that troops had restored law and order in Wukari, Taraba State and arrested 14 armed men who participated in the crisis.The Defence Spokesman said 25 houses were burnt and 200 persons displaced in the crisis.The troops also captured a building used for fabrication of arms.He said, “Four locally fabricated machine guns, four single barrel guns as well as 21 live cartridgeswere recovered.”He said that security operatives had been directed to sustain the degree of offensive against the enclaves of the insurgents in the country.