TheCable

The claim by military authorities that Nigerian soldiers engaged Boro Haram in a gun fight while the Chibok girls were being whisked away is being challenged by new accounts of the April 15 incident.

The father of two of the kidnapped girls has told the CNN that the villagers did not see any soldiers.

The man, whose face was obscured obviously for security reasons, said it was in the early hours of April 15 that he got information that his two daughters and three nieces had been taken captive by Boko Haram.

He recounted the story of the girls who escaped from the truck that was used to ferry them into an unknown destination, suspected to be the Sambisa forest.

He said: “Boko Haram went into the school, bring them all together and told them we are here for your protection. Don’t fear. All of you sit, have a seat here. Then they gathered them all together. They say that we are army, we are going to protect you. Don’t fear.

“And from that time they all gathered. They saw they start burning the school. They said these people say they are here for us but see what they are doing. They are not good people.”

The villagers gathered to discuss the incident in the morning and said they were assured that soldiers would soon come to help them locate their missing daughters.

“They said the army will be there and a civilian detail will be there – to accompany us into the bush” to search for the girls, he said.

But no military or government officials showed up, he added.

“Nothing. Nothing. Up to 21 days, nothing has been done,” he told CNN.

None of the girls who escaped said anything about seeing Nigerian soldiers throughout their ordeal.

Defence spokesman, Major Gen. Chris Olukolade, had – while reacting to a report by Amnesty International on the failure of the military to preempt the attack despite being pre-informed – said Nigerian soldiers engaged Boko Haram in a gun fight in trying to rescue the girls.

He said: “Contrary to the organisation’s claims, troops in Maiduguri did not receive four hours forewarning about the attacks.  Rather, they received information of an ongoing attack on Chibok community from troops on patrol who on noting the attack engaged the terrorists and called for more reinforcement to contain them.

“As the troops on reinforcement traversed the over 120km rugged and tortuous road from Maiduguri to Chibok, they ran into an ambush by terrorists who engaged them in fierce firefight and a number of soldiers lost their lives.”