Dapchi Girls: Girls To Meet Buhari at Aso Rock

They were released in the early hours of Wednesday.

One hundred and ten pupils were abducted from the school on February 19, 2018, by Boko Haram insurgents, while efforts to locate them by security agencies failed until they were released by their captors.

As of 8.50pm on Wednesday, the Federal Government had confirmed the release of 105 schoolgirls and a boy, making a total of 106 released persons.

Earlier, the Federal Government in a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had said 76 of the girls had been freed.

Later in an interview with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mohammed said 91 girls and a boy were freed by the terrorists.

However, in another statement, the minister said the number had increased to 101 with the documentation of more freed girls by security agencies.

The Minister of Information and Culture, in a late afternoon interview with journalists at the Air Force Base in Maiduguri, Bornu State, said the number had increased to 105.

The minister attributed the earlier changing figures released by the government to the fact that the “the girls went to their homes after they were released in Dapchi. What we have now is 105 girls and a boy; that makes it 106 persons released today (Wednesday).”

It was also learnt that a pupil, a Christian, was still being held by the insurgents because she refused to be converted to Islam.

Soldiers, who were deployed in the town, were said to have made “tactical withdrawal” to allow the terrorists to have access to the village.

The military, which was apparently aware that a deal for the release of the captives had been brokered, had reportedly stationed a large detachment of soldiers in another part of the village since Tuesday.

Journalists that stormed the town as early as 7am were initially turned back by soldiers who allowed other motorists to have access to the village.

Some of the journalists had come into the town on Wednesday to cover the solidarity visit of Chibok schoolgirls’ parents to Dapchi.

They, however, met excited villagers who informed them about the release of the Dapchi schoolgirls.

After journalists were prevented from entering Dapchi, some went to Jumbam, a 15-minute drive from Dapchi.

It was gathered that five of the six freed girls were from the village, while the sixth, who was also a pupil at the Dapchi school, was from Damaturu, the state capital.

The terrorists were said to have left the town with a warning that the parents must not send their daughters back to school.

Vehicles were later brought to transport the girls to Maiduguri under heavy security.

It was gathered that the girls were immediately airlifted to Abuja aboard a military transport plane.

They are expected to meet with Buhari in Aso Villa, Abuja.