A member of the House of Representatives, Goni Bukar, has said the 110 girls abducted by Boko Haram from their school in Dapchi town of Yobe state are been kept in Bulabulin town in Yunusari local government area of the state.
The lawmaker representing Bursari/Yunusari/Gaidam federal constituency, told The Nation newspaper on Thursday, March 1, in Damaturu the state capital that the girls were still within the territory of Yobe state.
“The girls are within Yobe. We have an idea that they are in Bulabulin, Yunusari Local Government. The military is aware that Boko Haram has been in that place for over four years. They live in that place like their own city,” Bukar said.
He, however, absolved the military of any blame on the efforts to rescue the girls, noting that the military was doing everything necessary to find the girls.
“I cannot blame the military because I am speaking with those that are carrying out the operation. We have been speaking and they are telling me everything that they are doing; so, I cannot say I will blame anybody in the military. They are doing everything but I think they need to improve in their search so as to rescue those girls,” he said.
“This issue is beyond the military that we have in Yobe … It is not the issue of sending 10 policemen or 20 soldiers. It is a matter of commitment. That is what we need.
If they like, let them give me the uniform and I will wear it and go and show them the place. Even the day of the incident, the chairman, member, House of Assembly and I went to Gumsa because we had information that three of the girls died along the way and they were thrown away but it was wrong information.”
Meanwhile, the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, has said unlike the slow response of the Jonathan administration to the kidnap of Chibok girls in April 2014, the current regime responded quickly to the abduction of over 100 girls from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state.
Speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of the Editors’ Plaza by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Abuja, on Thursday, March 1, the minister said the government had deployed over 200 hours of air search for the Dapchi girls, The Nation reports.
He said the counter terrorism operation of the Buhari administration has limited the insurgents to cowardly acts of bombing soft spots and kidnapping.