Defence minister says abducted students will be rescued in 2 weeks

dimeji akinloye

March 18, 2018 4:48 PM

The minister said surveillance devices in terms of air, human resource, intelligence have all be dispatched in search of the girls.

The Defence Minister

He said the military is closing in on the abductors, estimating that the girls would regain their freedom within two weeks.

Dan-Ali stated this on Saturday, March 17, 2018, during an interview on a Channels television program.

"It can be earlier; maybe a week, it can be two weeks, but we are on it, and I’m telling you with all sense of sincerity that we are closing in on them", he assured.

The girls were taken away after the insurgents stormed the Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi on February 19.

On the rescue efforts, Dan-Ali added "We have dispatched all the surveillance devices we have in terms of air, human resource, intelligence, and other forces that needed to be in place by all possible means and we have made sure that all that's needed is being done to see that these girls are being found, wherever they are."

The minister said he has visited the school in Dapchi, where he held a meeting with parents and teachers of the abducted girls.

Buhari talks negotiation

However, when he received the now sacked United States Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson last week, the President had said that the Federal Government was negotiating the release of the abducted Dapchi girls.

ALSO READ: Military rescues 30,000 women, children from Boko Haram

But the defence minister is painting a different picture. He is insinuating that military intervention is being used to secure the girls' rescue as against dialogue.

In October 2016, the government negotiated the release of 21 out of the 219 Chibok schoolgirls, who were abducted by Boko Haram in Borno State since April 2014.

The insurgents freed 82 more of the Chibok girls in May 2017 in exchange for ransom.

The terrorists were said to have demanded the release of some of their jailed commanders and an undisclosed huge sum of money.

dimeji akinloye