More than one week after air bombardment and
ground tactical operations commenced deep inside the
dreaded Sambisa forest, the nation’s Special Forces
have failed to locate the more than 200 students
kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents on April 14,
2014, from the Government Girls Secondary School,
Chibok in Borno State.
Military sources said Special Operations Forces, who
raided parts of the forest last week soon after war
planes bombarded the wooded area to neutralise the
insurgents, including dozens of landmines and other
bobby-traps that the terrorists used to secure the
area, could not trace the missing girls and all efforts
to find them in the area have been fruitless.
It was gathered that the soldiers were, however,
baffled by the sheer number of tunnels, open, long
trenches and defensive ridges dug in the forest by the
terrorists to shield them from frontal ground attacks
or air raids by outside forces.
The sources stated that the insurgents were really
prepared for a long stay in the forest and made
adequate arrangements by planting numerous land
mines round the enclave to defend the place from
invasion by troops, adding that aerial surveillance of
the area had alerted the Armed Forces of the
insurgents’ protective gear and was partly responsible
for the long delay in attacking the place.
Military personnel are working on the theory that the
terrorists may have moved the girls out of the forest
as soon as the bombardment started last week.
Quoting some of the fighters captured by soldiers as
saying that their leaders and their families have
moved to caves in the Cameroon mountain region
with some captives, the sources said the search would
now shift to those areas.
This is not the first time that the military has tried to
locate and rescue the Chibok girls who have spent
more than nine months in captivity. The first military
operation to free the girls was in May 2014 and it
was launched with international backing, but it failed
to locate or rescue them.
The operation failed even when the government
signalled that it was willing to negotiate with Boko
Haram to secure freedom for the girls.
Boko Haram leader, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, has
repeatedly maintained that the girls will only be
released in exchange for jailed insurgents. In one of
his videos, he said, “I swear to almighty Allah, you
will not see the girls again until you release our
brothers that you have captured.”
Although members of the #BringBackOurGirls led
by former Education Minister, Mrs. Obiageli [Oby]
Ezekwesili, have been forced to stop their daily vigil
at the Unity Fountain, Maitama, Abuja, in support of
the abducted girls, government officials have since
rejected suggestions that the girls may have been
married out to Boko Haram members or sold into
slavery in north and central African countries.
Coordinator of the National Security Information
Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, believed that all the girls
are alive and are still being held somewhere within
the Nigerian territory.
He rejected criticism that the government does not
know where the girls are detained, saying, “When the
Americans wanted to get their hostages in Iraq, they
knew where they were and it took them 200 days.
We don’t want ours to take 200 days. One thing I
feel certain of is that the mystery of the missing girls
will be unravelled soon.”
When the case of the girls was raised with the
Defence spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade,
during an interview during the week, he said the
military has not abandoned the effort to rescue the
students.
The operation, the general said, was still ongoing
even as he appealed to members of the public to
continue praying for the girls and the Armed Forces.
Olukolade said although the military has lately
concentrated more in denying the Boko Haram
terrorists the freedom of action that they enjoyed
previously by destroying every cell of the fanatics,
wherever it may be located, the search for the girls
will continue until they are located.
He also said troops are increasingly gaining an upper
hand in the counter-terrorism operational theatres of
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, stressing that the
insurgents are in disarray since the Armed Forces
deployed several new equipment and weapons which
encouraged better mobility of combatants and
amplified the fire-power of soldiers on the battle
field.
“We have made serious progress in the counter-
terrorism effort. In the field in the last few weeks,
there have been lots of successes on the part of the
military in checking the freedom of action that the
terrorists have enjoyed before now. Terrorists are
enemies of the society and their target is to destroy
our society. This is why they should not be allowed
to operate anywhere.
“Their cells and enclaves are being destroyed and
troops are moving to every location, any area where
there is a terrorist cell will be raided. We have made
some progress considering that many of them have
been arrested. Many of them have died and their
weapons and installations destroyed or captured in
the process of ensuring that their activities are
curtailed,” Olukolade stated.
He said the military has succeeded in destroying
terrorists’ enclaves in five communities namely,
Baga, Gwoza, Sambisa, Bama and Pulka.
The Director of Defence Information said the attack
was carried out jointly by the Air Force and ground
troops, assuring that the military operations had been
very successful. [Mynewswatchtimesng]

We shall get them back anywhere they are we shall find and free our girls