Borno
State governor, Kassim Shettima, Tuesday, said there was every tendency that
the female students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, abducted by
members of the Boko Haram sect, in April 2014, were being held in bunkers,
inside Sambisa Forest.
To this
end, he has asked the military, which is combing the forest not only to fish
out members of the sect but to also liberate the over 200 girls to carry their
assignment beyond surface earth.
Shettima,
spoke in Abuja, while presenting a paper at a two-day post election conference
on security and governance, organized by the Savanna Centre, a Non Governmental
Organisation, NGO, established by former Permanent Representative to the United
Nations, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
The
governor, who was represented at the occasion by the Secretary, Borno Elders
Forum, Dr Bulama Mala Gubio, said the dreaded sect, having operated in the
large expanse of the forest for so many years unchallenged, were able to build
a bunker, large enough to accommodate many people in the area.
“We are
suspecting that Chibok girls are living with the insurgents in bunkers, I think
the military must carry out their operations beyond the surface earth,” he
insisted.
“They (Boko Haram) were also known to have dug
tunnels to enable them move from house to house. So, having been left
unchallenged for such a long time, such possibilities cannot be ruled out which
poses serious obstacles within the forest, “the governor added.
Speaking
further, Shettima said: “The insurgents used their bases in the Sambisa Forest
to launch deadly attacks and make quick retreat to their base which enabled
them capture and take over control of all the local government areas bordering
Nigeria with Cameroon, Chad and Niger, thus effectively cutting off the three
neighbouring countries thereby declaring what they assumed was their their
independent territory (caliphate).”
The
governor also said unless Sambisa Forest was completely and effectively rid off
of the terrorists by the military, any reconstruction and rehabilitation
carried out in the North East region would be exercise in futility.
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