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Tayo Olanipekun
In addition to the 15 of the abducted Chibok school girls recently reported to be alive,15 more are still living, bringing the number of the surviving abductees to 30, a Nigerian journalist with sources among the Boko Haram insurgents has revealed.
In a series of tweets Tuesday evening, Ahmad Salkida said, however, that five of the girls have now been permanently embedded in the doctrines of the sect and have asked not to be considered among those included in any future negotiation of a release.
“Two other cells within the larger group have brought additional information, clarifying the earlier information, that there is another 10 girls available to another cell. Outside of the 15 and 10, another 5 amongst the girls are also alive as at early hours of today,” he wrote.
He said the group had confirmed his earlier tweets that all the 15 Chibok Girls , including the set of five, are married to the insurgents and the terms of their release, “for those who want to be released, are consistent with the details provided in my 4th anniversary tweets.”
Salkida revealed that a leading Boko Haram member clarified information he earlier provided about the fifteen surviving girls, ahead of the fourth anniversary of the abductions, adding that the girls are available but only known to a particular cell of the insurgents.
According to him, among the Boko Haram, members do not know what they don’t have access to because of the segmentation of authority.
“It’s part of the ethos of criminality to restrict access of lieutenants to critical information. You only know what obtains in the cell you control,” he said, apparently explaining the way his revelations are coming in.
He expressed disappointment that despite its “might and given the machinery” available to the government, the Presidency has “peremptorily” declared to the public that it “lacks institutional memory” regarding the processes of the Chibok abductions.
He said part of his objectives was to compel the government and Boko Haram to speak, but “he government is still unnecessarily defensive.”
