Soldiers, policemen, local vigilantes, hunters and volunteers combed the bushes on Wednesday in search of over 100 schoolgirls abducted on Monday by Boko Haram Islamists in Chibok, Borno State.
The rescue teams, aided by surveillance helicopters, were said to have moved deeper into the vast forest that extends into neighbouring Cameroon and other states in the North-East.
A senator representing Borno South in the National Assembly, Ali Ndume, made this known to the Cable News Network just as President Goodluck Jonathan summoned military chiefs and governors to emergency security meetings on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Before the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, made this known, the Federal Government had said it was not yet in possession of full details of the abduction of the girls from their hostel in the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok.
Ten of the girls escaped from an un-identified camp used by the Boko Haram insurgents on Wednesday morning. Four had earlier escaped when one of the vehicles conveying them to the camp broke down on Tuesday morning.
Reuters quoted one of the escapees as saying that the insurgents deceived them into thinking they were soldiers who had come to evacuate them from their hostel to avoid being harmed.
“When we saw these gunmen, we thought they were soldiers. They told all of us to come and walk to the gates and we followed their instructions,” 18-year-old Godiya Isaiah, said.
According to Reuters, when the insurgents started ransacking the school stores and setting fire to the buildings on the school premises, the girls realised they were being kidnapped.
“We were crying,” Isaiah said, recounting how she jumped from one of the trucks and ran into a nearby bush.
The Borno State Commissioner for Education, Inuwa Kubo, said five other girls who also managed to escape told the same story.
He said, “They went into the bus unsuspecting. They were lured into the vehicle because they were told that the school was going to be attacked.”
Governor Kashim Shettima, who promised to give N50m to anyone with information that could lead to the release of the remaining girls, also narrated how some of them escaped from their abductors.
He told journalists during a news conference in Maiduguri that the girls were asked by the insurgents to be involved in the preparation of meals and they took the opportunity of washing plates to flee the camp.
The governor added that he had been in constant touch with the principal of the school, Asabe Aliyu; the Chibok Local Government Chairman, Babagana Lawan; and District Head, Modu Lawan, over the incident.
Our correspondent in Borno State later gathered that the 14 pupils were in the custody of the leaders of Chibok.
Shettima said the school had opened a register for parents to record their missing children and wards, stressing that so far, 50 parents had complained.
He said he would have been in Chibok but for security advice which indicated that military operations were ongoing there.
He said, “I want to go to Chibok but was advised against it because of military operations going on around there.”
Shettima said he would not rest until all the abducted students were freed and reunited with their families.
“The task before us is how to get the pupils back to their respective families,” he said, adding that he was optimistic that the security crisis in the state would not “last forever.”
But one of the parents said her family had resorted to praying for the release of her daughter and niece.
“They took away my daughter and my niece. We fear for their safety in the hands of those merciless people that take delight in killing and destruction. I don’t know what to do. The whole family is confused and we have turned to prayers which is all we have,” she said.
Abati said the President regretted the the pain, sorrow and anguish brought upon many Nigerian families in recent days as a consequence of recurring security challenges which the nation was contending with.
The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, had before Abati released his statement, told State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting that the government had yet to get full information on the abducted girls.
Maku said the council only relied on media reports of the abduction when it was said at the FEC meeting.
The minister however said efforts were ongoing to rescue the pupils and apprehend their abductors.
While condemning the abduction, Maku described it as a call to action for Nigerians who should be ready to work with government and security agencies to nip the activities of criminals in the bud.
The minister said, “On the kidnapped pupils which we condemned, I also know that every effort is being made to locate them and those who kidnapped them.
“Our security services are on manhunt for the girls who have been kidnapped.
“Council did not have the full reports as to the details of how it took place other than media reports, but we will get the details.
“The thing with terrorists is that they go to where you least suspect them to go. They go to areas where they think nobody is looking at, they go to soft target.”
Also in Abuja, the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, said in an electronic mail on Wednesday that the Special Forces were already closing in on the abductors.
Olukolade put the total number of girls abducted from the school at 129.
He 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 attack.
Olukolade later said that more of the abducted girls regained their freedom on Wednesday evening.
The Defence spokesman, who initially did not give the number of those freed, said only eight of them were still missing.
He added that one of the terrorists who abducted the girls had been captured.