The military has tracked down and surrounded the location, where over
200 schoolgirls who were abducted two weeks ago from Government
Secondary School, Chibok, are being held captive, while exploring
various options, including intense negotiations by locals and the Borno
State Government to secure their release.
Disclosing this yesterday, security sources said the military has
already identified the various camps in which the girls are being held,
but is being cautious about executing a full onslaught against their
captors, in order to avoid collateral damage.
Giving Us a status report on efforts to rescue the girls, he
said: "The operation is being strategically carried in a very covert
manner because the terrorists will not hesitate to use any of the girls
as human shields or even kill them in the event of an attack.
"Another thing you must consider is that apart from being a large
expanse of land area, the Sambisa forest also has many clusters of
villages and settlements that can suffer from the collateral damage,
should an all-out bombardment be carried out.
"Assuming the military attacks them and some of the girls get killed
in the process, can you imagine the outrage that will come from the
members of the public? So they (military) are being careful.
"All this while, the military has known and has tracked the locations
where they are and has
even concluded plans to invade the place, but
later shelved it to avoid collateral damage."
Owing to the change of tactics, it was revealed that the military is
relying more on intelligence gathering and negotiations by some local
indigenes and the state government with the terrorists to secure the
release of the girls. It has also emerged that in the course of
searching for the girls, the military has arrested some of the
arrowheads behind their abduction and are currently undergoing
interrogation.
The source further explained that the security forces do not want to
get involved in negotiations since they consider the kidnapping a
"highly coordinated local issue" with the full backing of the state
government. "The state government and the Commissioner (of Education)
are seriously negotiating (for the girls' freedom) because they know
these boys. And what you see playing out is the politics of the state of
emergency," he said. Also, sources within defence circles further
revealed that after being embarrassed by the conflicting accounts on the
number of girls that were abducted or released, the military is taking a
more cautious approach in dealing with the situation.
Most of the military top brass, the sources also revealed, are still
aggrieved with the way they were misled into giving a false statement
about the missing students, which forced the Defence Headquarters (DHQ)
in Abuja to retract its statement.
One top security officer expressed doubts that 234 schoolgirls were
kidnapped, stating that the number of the abducted girls was grossly
exaggerated and may not be more than 70 in total.
According to him, since the total number of the students in the
school from junior to senior secondary level is about 1,200, this would
explain the high number of parents claiming that their children are
missing. "This is aside from the calculated effort aimed at getting some
kind of financial compensation from the state government, which was
alleged to have doled out the sum of N1 million to each family of the
missing girls. "Now if you divide that figure by six, you would have a
maximum of 200 students in a class. And when you consider the fact that
the SS3 (Senior Secondary 3) students are normally fewer in number than
other classes, it stands to reason that less than 200 schoolgirls were
abducted," the source explained.
Source: THISDAY
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