Released schoolgirls arrive Presidential Villa to meet Buhari

The 104 schoolgirls who were released by Boko Haram terrorists days ago after they were kidnapped in February have arrived the State House in Abuja to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, March 23, 2018.

The schoolgirls had been kidnapped by the terrorists on February 19, 2018, during an attack on their school but 104 were released on Wednesday, March 21 to wild jubilation in Dapchi.

After the 104 schoolgirls, alongside two other released hostages, were documented and profiled in Dapchi on Wednesday, they were transported to Borno State capital, Maiduguri, for onward movement to Abuja.

The released girls, alongside their parents and some aid workers, boarded a Nigerian Air Force aircraft to Abuja late on Wednesday.

President Buhari's Personal Assistant on Digital/Online Media, Lauretta Onochie, disclosed on Friday that the girls have arrived at the Presidential Villa.

She posted, "Our Dapchi girls arrive at the State House Abuja, with Bala, the only boy amongst them, to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Leah, who is yet to regain her freedom. But the President has assured that all is being done to secure her freedom."

Even though President Buhari has commented on the fate of Sharibu who's still being held for failing to convert from Christianity to Islam, the Federal Government has failed to comment on the five remaining girls that have been reported dead by their schoolmates.

Inuwa Garba, the father of one of the dead girls, told Associated Press on Thursday, March 22 that some of the released girls told him that his 16-year-old daughter was the first to die and was buried in the bush alongside the other four.

No ransom paid for girls - FG

The Federal Government has categorically denied reports that it paid a ransom to Boko Haram to secure the release of the girls.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the "unconditional" release of the girls was as a result of back-channel efforts achieved through "the help of some friends of the country".

Dapchi abduction

Boko Haram militants invaded Government Girls Science and Technical Secondary School in Dapchi, Bursari local government area of Yobe on Monday, February 19, 2018, and abducted 110 schoolgirls.

According to accounts by residents, the terrorists invaded the town around 7 pm in over 18 gun trucks mounted with high caliber weapons.

The abduction was a repeat of another Boko Haram attack that happened when militants invaded Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok and kidnapped 276 female students in April 2014.

After several escapes and releases, 112 of the girls remain in captivity of the deadly terrorist group.