The commander of the Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Leo Irabor, on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, revealed that the Chibok girls who were held captive in 2014 are still held hostage in the dreaded Sambisa forest in Borno State.
In a CNN report, Irabor revealed that besides the Sambisa forest, others are a location close to the Chad-Niger border.
According to Daily Post, military intelligence revealed that the remaining stronghold of the terrorists is the Sambisa forest which some say is as large as almost a state in the country.
Recall that over 200 school girls were in 2014 abducted by the Boko Haram terrorist group from the predominantly Christian village of Chibok in Borno State.
The disclosure confirms the military’s earlier stance that there is the possibility that most of the girls are still alive.
Irabor said the intelligence surrounding the current location of the Chibok girls points to the Sambisa corridor, noting that there is need for more international support to rescue the girls unhurt.
He said, “The question of the Chibok girls remains a sore point in our history. The biometrics as it were of the Chibok girls are not known to us. Those are the issues which I believe are among the challenges.
“We think, from the intelligence available to us, that the remaining areas that we are working to move into, that are where we are hoping to be able to rescue the Chibok girls.”
He stated that following the trail on the missing girls, the sect have now divided the girls into clusters so as not to attract unwanted attention.
The commander maintained that while his forces advance in the Sambisa Forest, they are also running down other leads on the whereabouts of the Chibok girls.
“It’s a belief, but beyond that, we’re also getting some intelligence that they maybe somewhere on the Niger-Lake Chad border areas,” he said.
“We are working assiduously so that all of them are rescued and brought back to live in their communities. I think that the light is beginning to shine and in a short while we’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Irabor said
