The Director of Defence Information, Major-General Chris Olukolade, says the true identities of some of the women and children recently rescued from the Sambisa forest following military operations are yet to be ascertained.
He said that until a comprehensive profiling is done, nobody can confirm whether they are among the abducted Chibok girls or not.
He, however, added that all hope is not lost in the search and rescue of hostages held in the Sambisa forest by Boko Haram insurgents as the counter terrorism operation continues.
According to Olukolade, while the first batch of the rescued women and children are being profiled and given the necessary medical attention, more hostages are still being rescued while others are finding their way out of the forest on their own.
As such, he added, it would be hasty to conclude on the outcome of the operations when the entire forest has not been fully combed.
The Borno State government later revealed that the 293 rescued hostages are indigenes of Bumsiri Village of Damboa Local Government in the state, dousing hopes that some could be the Chibok girls abducted on April 14, 2014.
The state’s Commissioner of Information, Mohammed Bulama, has confirmed this while briefing reporters on the development.
Mr. Bulama said that that the rescued persons would be reunited with their parents soon.
Channels Television’s correspondent in Borno State, Blessing Tunoh, said that the people of the state received the news with mixed feelings. They are asking the military to give them more evidence in form of images.
“For now there are no pictures and some of the people I spoke to were having doubts, saying that they expected that the military should have posted some pictures for the parents and others to begin to identify some of the women.
“Right now, there is nothing to hold on to, to identify who these women are,” she said.
The women were found at Tokumbere camp, inside Sambisa Forest, according to the Defence Headquarters.
