Buhari and the rescued lecturers
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met with lecturers of the University of Maiduguri and police officers’ wives who were abducted by Boko Haram last year.
He received them at the presidential villa, Abuja.
Just after receiving them, President Muhamamdu Buhari took to his Twitter page and shared the photos and wrote:
"I can't fully express the joy I felt I this afternoon, as I received our citizens recently released from Boko Haram captivity—fathers, mothers, sons, daughters. We will go to any length to ensure that no one is left behind in the hands of terrorists. Every Nigerian life matters!
"There were the University of Maiduguri lecturers, abducted while on service to their fatherland, and also the women abducted from a funeral procession. Today they are safely back home, and Nigeria rejoices with them and with their families.
"They told me that they had given up all hope of ever coming back alive. I assured them that we will never give up on any of our citizens.
"I have asked the security agencies to ensure that every abducted person—including the Dapchi girls—is safely released."
The rescued persons had been under the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) in Abuja where they were examined by a team of doctors and psychologists.
The rescued lecturers were abducted by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in Magumeri, Borno, while the police officers’ wives were kidnapped in a raid by the militant group on a military/police convoy on Damboa road, near Maiduguri, in June 2017.
Their release after series of negotiations, according to an earlier statement issued by a presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, was facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, in line with presidential directives.