BEVERLY HILLS, May 19, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Army has insisted that Serah Luka, a second girl rescued by its troops on Thursday, was among the nearly 300 school students abducted in Chibok by Boko Haram.
The statement from the army which announced Luka’s rescue had declared that said she was a native of Madagali in Adamawa State and was number 157 on the list of the kidnapped Chibok girls.
However, Yakubu Nkeki, the head of the Chibok Abducted Girls Parents group, and Pogu Bitrus, a community leader, declared on Friday that Luka was not on the list of 218 students still missing from the mass abduction.
But Sani Usman, the Spokesman of the Nigerian Army, insisted that the military stood by its earlier statement saying the army as an institution had resolved not join issues with those who have clear political agenda.
“We cannot be dragging words with people who have clear political agenda. The facts speak for themselves that that girl came from Adamawa and, beyond all reasonable doubt, she is amongst those that were abducted on the 14th of April 2014 in Government Secondary School, Chibok,” he said.
“For anybody to wake up and say he’s the head of Chibok community and the girl was not amongst those kidnapped is wrong. If the principal of that school comes out and say ‘this is my nominal role and I don’t have such student’ then we can be debating the matter.
“She is not from Chibok but Adamawa and she may not have been on any of the unofficial lists that said they were 249 girls or 219 girls, but she was kidnapped and we have all the facts.”
Story by David Oputah
