The Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawan Daura; and the Inspector-General of Police(IGP) Solomon Arase, on Wednesday, said they had no concrete clue on the whereabouts of the abducted Chibok girls. The security chiefs, who briefed senators at a closed session on Wednesday, said there was no clue yet on the actual whereabouts of the abducted girls who had already spent two years in the custody of the dreaded Boko Haram.
Though the service chiefs were conspicuously absent, sources at the closed session told the Nigerian Tribune that the senators were downcast to hear that the nation’s intelligence network had no clue on the whereabouts of the girls. It was gathered that the DG, DSS, Daura, who briefed the senators on the abducted girls, said the government did not really know where the girls were being kept.
He was also quoted as telling the senators that a recent attempt to rescue 20 of the girls could not pull through, following the failure of the militants to keep their words.
Sources in the Senate also quoted the security chief as saying the recent attempt at rescuing the girls took off following interactions between the government and supposed representatives of the militants.
The sources said the Boko Haram militants had demanded that five of their senior hands already arrested by the government should be freed in exchange for 20 of the girls. According to sources, the security operatives revealed that the supposed negotiators asked the security men to bring the 20 girls to a location in Maiduguri and that 10 of them will be exchanged for five Boko Haram militants in government custody.
It was also gathered that the government agents were to drop the five militants in a location where they would pick 10 of the girls, while they would locate the second batch of 10 in another location. But the operatives were said to have told the Senate that though the five arrested militants were taken to Maiduguri as planned, the deal failed to sail through, as the Boko Haram failed to produce the girls.
The Senate had, on the second anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls, summoned the service and security chiefs to brief it on efforts aimed at rescuing the girls. Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who announced the departure of the security chiefs at the end of the briefing, said the senate agreed that the government should intensify efforts in their rescue.