Abuja, March 31 (IANS) The Nigerian government on Wednesday denied an online media report credited to a top office that Boko Haram insurgents still controlled two local government areas in the restive northeast region.
Minister of Defence Brig.-Gen. (rtd.) Mansur Dan-Ali disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, the country's capital city, Xinhua reported.
The minister denied reports in the same medium credited to him that the abducted female students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, were being used as suicide bombers.
The minister said he was quoted out of context, as he did not imply what was reported by the online medium.
The minister was a guest in the studio of Voice of America, where he spoke in Hausa language, on the appraisal of the successes recorded in the ongoing war against terrorists in the northeast.
He said before now, over 60 local government areas were under the occupation of Boko Haram in the north-east, but now only two were having some remnants of Boko Haram activities and not under their complete control.
On the issue of the Chibok girls, the minister said he was not referring to the girls abducted on April 14, 2014 from Government Secondary School in Chibok.
Rather, he was referring to other girls abducted by the terrorists from the local government areas.
