Nigerian military retracts claim on releases

Kano, Nigeria (CNN) - The Nigerian Defense Ministry retracted Thursday a report that nearly all the 129 girls kidnapped this week from a school by suspected Boko Haram militants had been released.
Amid the "ongoing frantic efforts" of security forces, vigilante groups and hunters to find and free the students, "a report was filed in from the field indicating that a major breakthrough had been recorded in the search," said Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, director of defense information.
"There was no reason to doubt this official channel, hence the information was released to the public immediately. Surprisingly however, the school principal, one of the sources quoted in the report, has denied all that was attributed to her for whatever reasons. This is an unfortunate development indeed."

Olukolade said the initial report was issued "in good faith" and was "not intended to deceive the public."
He added, "The number of those still missing is not the issue now as the life of every Nigerian is very precious."
The retraction came after families of the abducted girls accused the Nigerian military of lying.
"We have been in grief for the past four days over the kidnap of our daughters and hoping the military would rescue them, but to our greatest shock and disbelief the same military has resorted to blatant propaganda, claiming all but eight of our girls have been freed," said Lawan Zanna, father of one of the students. "This is a blatant lie."
Only 14 of the 129 students were free, he said. Musa Inuwa Kubo, the Borno state education commissioner, said later that 30 students had been returned home.
Three girls escaped their captors Wednesday and were returned home by herdsmen, Zanna said. Some other girls escaped from a truck moments after the kidnapping, he said.
"For the military, who is supposed to find and rescue our children, to be spreading such lies shows that they have no intention of rescuing our girls."
The military, in a statement, had earlier said the school principal said only eight students were still missing. It credited "ongoing search and rescue operations."
Source: cnn