LAGOS
Only hours after the army claimed that nearly 121 abducted schoolgirls had been freed, the school principal and local residents said the girls were still nowhere to be seen.
"We're aware of only 14 of the abducted students who made it back on their own," Asabe Kwamburah, principal of the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok in the northern Borno State, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
"As of this morning, we are not aware that others have returned home," she said.
Late Wednesday, the Nigerian army announced that 121 schoolgirls – said to have been abducted earlier by Boko Haram militants – had been released.
"With this development, the principal of the school confirmed that only eight of the students are still missing," army spokesman Chris Olukolade said in a statement.
The army's announcement, and the fact that the spokesman attributed the information to her, left Kwamburah dumbfounded.
"I'm only aware of the 14 [students who escaped their captors]: four who escaped on their way to where their abductors were taking them, and [an] additional ten that Borno Governor Kashim Shettima told reporters about yesterday," the school principal told AA.
"No more, no less," she said, insisting that she and her staff were "totally ignorant" regarding the fate of the remaining 107 students who the military said had been rescued.
Chibok resident Haruna Shehu, for his part, also refuted the army's claims.
"We were at a loss to hear on radio that the military said the girls have been freed," he told AA. "Where are they? We can't see them."
According to Shehu, the entire episode has left the parents of the missing girls in a state of confusion and dismay.
"I think the military statement has created more confusion. We need to know the truth," he said. "Somebody isn't telling the truth."
Musediq Aruwa, another local resident, agreed.
"We live here," he told AA. "No one has seen those girls."
Army spokesman Olukolade, meanwhile, was not immediately available for comment.
Nor did Borno governor spokesman Isa Gusau respond to AA's requests for comments on the incident.
By Rafiu Ajakaye
englishnews@aa.com.tr
