Expdonaloaded News; Chibok girls held in Sambisa –Buratai

THE Nigerian Army, yesterday said there were strong indications that Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014 are still in the fringes of the Sambisa forest.
The army, did not however, give the exact lo- cation where the girls are being held for over one year now.Similarly, the military has again maintained that it was applying caution in its operation for the safety and release of the girls.
Chief Of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General, Tukur Buratai, who made this known, however, said so far, the military was concentrating solely in its operation to clear the terrorists from the forest, after which it will commence an offensive to rescue the Chibok girls in one piece.
He said the safe return of the abducted school girls last April, by the insurgents remained the priority of the Nigerian armed forces in the ongoing counter-terrorism operations in the North East.
Buratai, who spoke while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after declaring open the Chief of Army Staff third quarter conference in Abuja, said: “ I believe that the girls must be somewhere within the general area of the forest but we are not yet sure exactly where they are, but as soon as this is confirmed, we will attempt to see what we can do to bring them back in one piece.
“It is very crucial because their safety is very important. They could be somewhere else, so, we are taking this issue piecemeal so that we are sure of where we are and how we are going about it and we believe that we can find a solution to it very soon.
He maintained that “it is not an Army issue, it is a collective issue, the Air Force is there, also working very hard; the Department of State Services (DSS) is also working very hard on this issue, our main concern is to provide the ground support to ensure that we do it very well, by and large there is progress.”