‘We can’t identify freed captives yet,’ Army says

The Nigerian Army has said that it will not be able to confirm the identities of the captives recently freed from Boko Haram until a thorough screening has been done.

Soldiers rescued 293 girls and women from Sambisa Forest on Tuesday, April 28, and another 160 captives on Wednesday, 29.

Director of Defence Information, Chris Olukolade however stated on Thursday, April 30, that the military wouldn’t release a final figure until all rescue operations had been completed.

“The true identity of some of the rescued women and girls are yet to be ascertained. At the moment, what is uppermost and of priority is their movement to a conducive place, where they are now undergoing thorough profiling to verify their true identity; where they come from, how they found themselves in the forest, etc.” he said

“Additional number of persons is still being recovered from the forest. Until such comprehensive profiling is done, nobody can confirm whether they are among the Chibok girls or not. Whoever they may be, the important thing is that Nigerians, held captive under very severe and inhuman condition, have been freed by our gallant troops,” he added.

“We would like to reassure them that the momentum of this operation will be sustained until that Sambisa Forest is comprehensively cleaned out and all Nigerians held captive within the bowels of the forest are rescued. There is great hope for the recovery of more hostages of the terrorists,” Olukolade said.

President Goodluck Jonathan has vowed to hand over a terrorist-free country to President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari come May 29, 2015.