Olukolade: Identity of rescued girls still unknown

The Nigerian military says it still doesn’t know the true identity of some of the 200 girls and 93 women (some pictured) whom its men rescued from Sambisa Forest on Tuesday.

Addressing the media in Abuja on Thursday, Chris Olukolade, a major-general and director of defence information, said that at the moment, what is upper most and of priority is the movement of the victims to a conducive place where they are now undergoing thorough profiling to verify their true identity, where they come from, how they found themselves in the forest and so on.

“Additional number of persons are still being recovered from the forest. Until such comprehensive profiling is done, nobody can confirm whether they are among the Chibok girls or not,” he said.

“Whoever they may be, the important thing is that Nigerians held captive under very severe and inhuman condition have been freed by our gallant troops. The joy and sense of hope being expressed by many Nigerians on hearing about the rescue operation is therefore understandable. We would like to reassure them that the momentum of this operation will be sustained until that sambisa forest is comprehensively cleaned out and all Nigerians held captive within the bowels of the forest are rescued. There is great hope for the recovery of more hostage of the terrorists.”

Olukolade noted that the main objective of the Sambisa operation was “to decimate and clear the insurgents from the forest which is their last bastion.” He expressed happiness that “the well-coordinated operation” was already yielding results, as troops in the past few days had cleared out 13 insurgent camps, including “the notorious Tokumbere camp in Sambisa forest”.

He listed other camps overran and destroyed by troops to include Wulari Bukar, Gangala, Anguwar Bakwai, Jigide, Kotorima, Lagura Bello and Lagina Fulani.

“Several field commanders and foot soldiers of the terrorist group have lost their lives, some armoured personnel carriers, bufallo vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft guns, a truck and several Hilux vehicles were destroyed by troops,” he said.

“Also recovered from the fleeing terrorists are a number of anti-aircraft guns, general purpose machine guns (GPMG), rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and several AK 47 rifles. Unfortunately, though, we lost one soldier in the course of the operation while 10 others have so far been wounded.

“Already, the dislodged and disorganised terrorists are in flight on different directions and running helter-skelter in the expansive forest. There is no longer any respite or sanctuary for them; they will be pursued and tracked down not minding the daunting challenges in the mission including hundreds of land mines and difficult terrain of the Sambisa forest.

“It should be noted, however, that the essence of this operation is not to kill everybody in sight. We encourage any of the combatants who is desirous to surrender to come out, as the forest will no more be tenable as a haven for their activities. In the same vein, innocent civilians among those in flight are also encouraged to report themselves to the troops. We will continue to treat civilians in the most professional and humane way.”

He thanked all Nigerians for their prayers and support and assured them that “never again shall forces of darkness reign supreme in our country”.

Reacting to the news of the rescued 293 women and girls, Bitrus Pogu, chairman Chibok Development Association, told TheCable that the community received the report with “cautious optimism” but expressed hope that their own 219 daughters would be rescued as well.

“That fact that some girls have been rescued gives us some cautious optimism,” he said.

“We are hoping as it happened with other girls, the Chibok girls would be rescued. There is hope that the Chibok girls will be rescued.”