Nigeria’s Federal Government has claimed that 11 Chibok girls have been rescued by the military from Boko Haram since the inception of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
This was revealed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed during an address at the 10th edition of the scorecard on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
”For the record, the Nigerian military has rescued 11 Chibok girls with all their children,
2,018 other persons (comprising 339 adult males, 660 adult females and 1019 children), while 82,645 persons, comprising 16,621 male fighters, 24,638 women and 41,386 children, have surrendered,” the Minister disclosed.
“The military has also neutralized 494 terrorists (note that this does not include terrorists neutralized through airstrikes and terrorists’ infighting),” Mohammed added.
The minister also denied alleged secret 10,000 abortions carried out on women and girls by the military in the North-East as part of the campaign against Boko Haram.
He said the news was fake and fictional.
He said: ‘”The Federal Government hereby categorically states that there is no ‘secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme’ being run by our military in the North-East or anywhere across the country.
“We also hereby reject the accusation of running an abortion programme levelled at our military, We state categorically that this story is a scary instance of fake news and disinformation combined. The writers deserve an award in fiction writing.”
Mohammed queried the motives behind the fake news against the military.
He said such fake news could have negative impact on the nation’s ongoing fight against terrorism.