Defence authorities have said they will not be able to confirm whether the about 453 females rescued by the Special Forces in the Sambisa Forest on Tuesday and Wednesday are from Chibok or not without a comprehensive profiling of the distressed persons.
Troops of the Nigerian Army rescued 293 ladies comprising 200 girls and 93 women on Tuesday and rescued another batch of 160 women and children on Wednesday.
Those rescued comprised 100 children and 60 children, bringing the total number of the rescued persons as of Wednesday night to 453.
However, the Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday that the military would not release figures of those being freed from the captivity of Boko Haram as the number of those being released was on the increase.
Olukolade, who said the identities of the women and girls rescued on Tuesday had not been ascertained, stated that the military had commenced the process of verifying their identities.
He assured Nigerians of the readiness of the military to sustain the tempo of the ongoing raid on the Sambisa Forest and the continuing release of those held under abominable condition by the insurgents.
The defence spokesman stated however that while some of the rescued ladies might be from Bumsiri community in Damboa as claimed by the Borno State Government, not all of them belonged to that category.
He said, “The true identity of some of the rescued women and girls are yet to be ascertained. At the moment, what is uppermost and of priority is their movement 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, etc.
“Additional number of persons is still being recovered from the forest. Until such comprehensive profiling is done, nobody can confirm whether they are among the Chibok girls or not.
“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 hostages of the terrorists.”
Olukolade urged the Boko Haram fighters to surrender themselves as the forest would no longer be a safe haven for them.
via nigerianeye
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