PRESS RELEASE ON CHIBOK GIRLS.
The President is pleased to announce that negotiations to release more of the Chibok Girls have borne fruit with the release of 82 more Girls today.
After months of patient negotiations, our security agencies have taken back these abducted girls in exchange for some Boko Haram suspects held by the authorities.
The Girls are due tomorrow in Abuja to be received by the President.
The President expressed his deep gratitude to security agencies, the military, the government of Switzerland, the Red Cross, local and international NGOs for the success of this operation.
It may be recalled that when the first batch of 21 Girls were released in October last year,the President directed the security agencies to continue in earnest until all the Chibok Girls have been released and reunited with their families.
The President has been receiving full reports from the Director-General of the State Security Services at each stage of the operation.
(Sent from the mail box of Presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu)
A federal minister had earlier confirmed to Everyday. NG as true information making the rounds that 82 Chibok girls have been released.
He however did not wish to be named for now because he is not authorised to do so.
Nigeria’s Minister of Ingormation and Culture, Lai Mohammed’s number was consistently engaged when our reporter tried reaching him. He did not reply to an sms at press time.
Earlier, the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group, that has remained in the fore-front for advocacy for the return of the girls, issued a statement, by its spokesman, Sesugh Akume, that reads:
“We have been made aware of the yet-to-be-confirmed news that a number of our missing 195 Chibok girls in captivity today for 1,118 days have been released through a negotiated deal.
“It would be recalled that in October last year when the 21 were released, the Federal Government, specifically the Presidency said that 83 were ‘on their way’ to join the 21 released ‘soon’.
“We await official confirmation from the Federal Government and a release of their names. We, as usual shall go to work to confirm the news to verify its authenticity, and communicate same to the public.
“Our hopes and expectations are high as we look forward to this news being true and confirmed.”