‘Chibok girls may be held in bunkers’

Borno State Governor Kassim
Shettima has said there is the
likelihood that the over 200 female
students of the Government
Secondary School, Chibok abducted
by the Boko Haram fighters on April
14, 2014 may be held in bunkers in
Sambisa Forest.
He therefore called on the military
to go after the Boko Haram Islamic
insurgents and liberate the girls.
Shettima claimed that the
insurgents had killed over 300,000
people in the North-East, with his
state recording 70,000 out of the
figure.
He said that the 13,000 figure being
reported in the media as the
number of lives lost to insurgency
in the North-East was therefore a
far cry.
The governor spoke on Tuesday
evening while presenting a paper
entitled, “Holistic approach for the
reconstruction and rehabilitation of
the North-East ravaged by terrorism
and insurgency: The national and
international policy options/
perspectives,” in Abuja.
The event was a two-day post-
election conference on security and
governance organised by the
Savanna Centre, a non-
governmental organisation
established by a former Permanent
Representative to the United
Nations, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
Shettima, who was represented at
the event by the Secretary, Borno
Elders’ Forum, Bulama Mala Gubio,
said he believed the Boko Haram
fighters had bunkers that were
large enough to accommodate
many people.
He said, “We are suspecting that
Chibok girls are living with the
insurgents in bunkers. I think the
military must carry out their
operations beyond the earth
surface. They (Boko Haram fighters)
are also known to have dug tunnels
to enable them to 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 insurgents use their bases in
the Sambisa Forest to launch
deadly attacks and make quick
retreat to their base which enables
them to capture and take over
control of all the LGAs bordering
Nigeria with Cameroon, Chad and
Niger, thus effectively cutting off
the three countries, thereby
declaring what they assumed was
their independent territory
(caliphate).”