***BREAKING: Dapchi girls released, five dead
Daniel Efe/ Port Harcourt
The Rivers State Police Command promised to repress those in possession of weapons, but refused to surrender them to the police within 21 days of the order of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.
Nnamdi Omoni, a lawyer and police officer in charge of public relations for the police, PPRO, Command gave the warning by addressing a section of Port Harcourt journalists said the state command conducted awareness and advocacy campaigns firearms to make them.
He said that the Command, under the leadership of CP Zaki Ahmed, has set up a task force tasked with recovering weapons in the hands of the people and is now traveling to the local communities to sensitize them to the 21-day window.
According to Omoni, after 21 days, the Command would have no choice but to break through the hiding places where the illegal weapons are secretly kept and to recover the weapons without warning.
He acknowledged that some Nigerians in good possession of firearms, even when they are licensed, voluntarily subject him to profiling.
The PPRO urged the people of Rivers not to throw the opportunity of 21 days because they will be responsible themselves.
The terrorists group, Boko Haram, has returned 105 of the 110 girls kidnapped from Government Girls Science and Technical College,
Dapchi, on February 19.
The remaining five were said to have died. The Presidency confirmed the release of the girls.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who confirmed the development said the government was highly delighted.
The girls were returned by the terrorists group and dropped on the outskirt of the town at about 6.00 a.m. on Wednesday.
Security forces were said to have picked the girls who came in about nine trucks and driven them to
Dapchi town.
The sources said movements in and out of the town were restricted while the operation lasted.
Journalists, in particular, were not allowed into the town.
A security source said that there was a specific instruction not to allow journalists witness the operation.
As a result, people around were thoroughly screened and no journalist was allowed.
At about 7.00 a.m., it was gathered, the people went wild in jubilation.
Some of the released girls were said to have met with their families, but would all be moved to Abuja soon.
According to him, the government had committed everything necessary to ensure their rescue and there were indications that they would soon be rescued.
Although he could not state the specific time, he was very optimistic that the girls would soon return to reunite with their families.
“It can be earlier; maybe a week, it can be two weeks, but we are on it, and I’m telling you with all sense of sincerity that we are closing in on them…
“We have dispatched all the surveillance devices we have in terms of air, human resource, intelligence, and other forces that needed to be in place by all possible means and we have made sure that all that’s needed is being done to see that these girls are being found, wherever they are,” he said.
Speaking during his visit on Wednesday, he assured Nigerians and the international community that the missing 110 Dapchi girls would be rescued or released.
At the meeting held in Government House,Yobe, attended by government officials, security and intelligence chiefs, community and religious leaders, President Buhari recounted recent successes recorded by his administration in rescuing Boko Haram hostages.
