I Have Lost Hope On Rescuing Abducted Female Students, By Senator Ahmad Zanna

I have been constantly in touch with the security agencies, telling them the developments, the movement of the girls from one place to the other and then the splitting of the girls and eventually the marriage of these girls by the insurgents.
What bothered me the most is that whenever I informed the military where these girls were, after two to three days, they were moved from that place to another. Still, I would go back and inform them on new developments.
However, I lost hope two days ago when I found out that some of them were moved to Chad and Cameroun. Actually, some of them moved through the Mandara Mountain that is in Gwoza and some of them are just a stone throw from their barracks.
Even now, as I am talking to you, some are in Kolofata, which is in Cameroun, about 15 kilometres or even less from the border, because one of the insurgents called somebody in Bama and said: ‘I just got married and I am now settling in Kolofata’; and then, three or four days ago, some Fulani men reported that they saw some girls being taken by boats into the island on Lake Chad and that some of them happened to be between Mate and Mungonu.
Maybe, those ones might still be within Nigeria but that is the current and new base of the insurgents. They just took over that place less than a few weeks ago and that village is called Chikungudua. The place is the constituency of Senator Maina Maji.
I informed the security agents about the developments. And from that place, they (the insurgents) can just go to either Chad or Cameroun because it is very open; there are no weeds in the lake and so they can go to anywhere. They have snatched all the boats around that area, including the one for NNPC and so they are free to go anywhere without being chased by anybody.
There are about 40 islands there and they have ejected most of the occupants of the islands and occupied the islands. What is most disturbing is that hitherto, Sambisa was their base and it was well known to the military and the Nigerian security services.
After the abduction of those girls, they started moving out of Sambisa and even before then, I had been discussing with the military and they said they were going to attack that place about 15 or 20 days ago. I don’t know what delayed them.
But eventually when they launched the attack, all the insurgents had already gone out of the place.
These are the facts. So unless there is seriousness on the part of our military, we have no hope of getting those girls. Even if we are going to get them, we are going to get them in trickles, maybe getting two, three, four and five.
They are now scattered, so it is not possible for us to get 50, 60,100 in one particular position. That is the position as at today.

Senator Ahmad Zanna who Represents Borno Central made this statement on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, April 29