We have located abducted schoolgirls but we can’t rescue them now - Military

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, has revealed that the military has located where the over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram on April 14 were being held but cannot rescue them immediately because they cannot use force so as to save their lives.

Badeh, who received members of the Citizens Initiative for Security Awareness outside the Defence Headquarters in Abuja on Monday, assured that the military had the capacity to bring back the girls alive and therefore advised that it should be allowed to do its work.

He said, "We want our girls back; our military can do it, but where they are held, we cannot go with force.

"If we go with force, what will happen? they will kill them . So nobody should come and say the Nigerian military does not know what it is doing. We know what we are doing; we can't go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back. So we are working.

"The good news for the girls is that we know where they are but we cannot tell you military secrets here. Just leave us alone; we are working and we will get the girls back."

When asked by journalists to expatiate on what he meant "that 'the military would not use force'' to free the girls, the CDS replied, "That would be telling you our secrets and our strategy. We cannot discuss our strategy in the open."