The FG said a total of 106 abducted persons, comprising 104 Dapchi schoolgirls, one other girl and a boy were freed by insurgents in the early hours of Wednesday.
Briefing journalists in Maiduguri, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said all the 106 persons were freed unconditionally, contrary to reports in a section of the media that ransom was paid and that some insurgents were swapped for the freed persons.
”It is not true that we paid ransom for the release of the Dapchi girls, neither was there a prisoner swap to secure their release.
What happened was that the abduction itself was a breach of the ceasefire talks between the insurgents and the government, hence it became a moral burden on the abductors. Any report that we paid ransom or engaged in prisoner swap is false,” he said.
Meanwhile, the freed persons have been formally handed over to the FG. The Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj.-Gen. Rogers Nicholas, handed over the girls and one boy to the four-member FG Delegation at the Nigerian Air Force base in Maiduguri on Wednesday evening
The girls were immediately airlifted to Abuja aboard a military transport plane.
It was gathered some parents of the freed pupils that they had been told to be on standby to pick up their children on Wednesday.
It was, therefore, into the waiting hands of their overjoyed parents that the boy and the released schoolgirls reportedly fell as soon as the insurgents left.
One of our correspondents learnt that six of the freed pupils were allowed to disembark at Jumbam, a town not far from Dapchi.
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.
One of the six girls, Khadija Grema, said that her experience in the hands of the insurgents was a sad one.
Grema said she was lucky to be alive, but lamented that five of her fellow pupils died of suffocation.
“The five girls who died were buried in the bush. Two of them are from Jumbam,” she added.
The schoolgirl noted that one pupil was still being held by the insurgents.
Grema said,
“One girl, Leah, is still with them because she is a Christian. About five are dead but it was not as if they killed them – it was because of the stress.
“We were at the school, about to break our Monday voluntary fast, when the gunmen arrived and started shooting. Everyone was screaming and one of the men said we should come.
“We ran towards the school gate and when we got there, they brought vehicles and they drove us away from Dapchi.
“On the way, they stopped and asked some of us that were fasting to come down from the vehicle. They gave us groundnut cake, meat and water and we had our prayers after breaking the fast.
“We continued with the journey and when it was dark, they stopped at a place with a big tree. We prepared our food and after eating, we continued the journey. They drove for a long time until we got to a river. We took canoes to cross that river.
“Then, they took us to a house in one village where we stayed for some time. One day, they came and asked us to come and we were taken to the river and continued the journey until we got to a thick forest. That was where they kept us until they brought us back.
“They fed us very well, they treated us very well. They did not beat us; they did not molest us.
“The people that took us away were all speaking Kanuri and Arabic. They told us today that we were Muslims and it was right for them to free us.”
A parent of another girl, Kundili Bukar, told the BBC that the terrorists drove into the town in a motorcade in the early hours of Wednesday.
The terrorists were said to have left the town with a warning that the parents must not send their daughters back to school.
A father of one of the girls that died, Abdullahi Hassan, said he was sad to lose her daughter to the insurgents.
Hassan, who gave the name of her daughter as Maimuna, said,
“I feel sad because my daughter is one of the girls that died. Her name is Meimuna Hassan.”
It was a different story for Alhaji Aliyu Maina, whose daughter, Aisha Maina, got back alive.
He said,
“We are happy for the release of those found, but still sad over the loss of some girls.”
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.
FG claims credit for the release
The Federal Government said the release of the schoolgirls was the outcome of the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to all security agencies to secure the release of the schoolgirls.
According to the government, the girls were released through “back-channel efforts and with the help of some friends of the country,” adding that their release was unconditional.
A statement by Mohammed said,
‘’For the release to work, the government had a clear understanding that violence and confrontation would not be the way out as it could endanger the lives of the girls; hence, a non-violent approach was the preferred option.
“When the girls were being brought back, an operational pause was observed in certain areas to ensure free passage and to prevent loss of lives.”
A Federal Government delegation, comprising the Ministers of Information and Culture, Mohammed; Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau; and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Khadijah Ibrahim, were sent to Maiduguri to meet with the freed girls.
Mohammed told journalists before the delegation left that
“the girls were released unconditionally. No money changed hands.”
“They (B’Haram) only had one condition: that they will be the ones to return them (schoolgirls) to where they abducted them. In the early hours of today (Wednesday), they returned the girls and most of them went to their parents’ homes.”
“The girls were not dropped in one place. Some were left by the roadside and they naturally went back to their parents’ houses.
“They have been asked to come for documentation at a centre in the area.”
When asked how a boy was among those released when the school where they were abducted is only girls’ school, Mohammed said, “Whether they picked the boy or not, I can’t hazard any guess; but don’t forget that even in a girls’ school, which is a boarding school, there will be parents. There are teachers who have children among them.”
Mohammed said apart from security that had been beefed up in schools in the area, the Federal Government was considering merging some schools as a way of preventing a recurrence.
He said the freed girls had been attended to at the Dapchi General Hospital as part of their rehabilitation programmes.
“Just as we did when we had the first and second sets of released Chibok girls, they will be quarantined and be psychologically counselled before they go back to school,” he said.
The Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, who is from Yobe State, expressed delight that the girls had been released.
