Troops on offensive at the Lake Chad Island yesterday captured a boat operator who ferries the insurgents across water and a hard drug supplier to the deadly group.

This is just as some members of the terrorists’ group who disguised as herdsmen to attack Wukari, Taraba State, were also killed and others arrested.

A statement from the Defence Headquarters, DHQ, in Abuja yesterday, signed by the Director of Defence Information, DDI, Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said that the insurgents operated under the guise of herdsmen from a camp on the outskirts of Wukari.

According to the DHQ, some members of the group were killed and others arrested after an attack on a military check point at Gindin Dorowa, a suburb of Wukari.

It also disclosed that other members of the group were sighted in the course of air surveillance and later trailed to their camp where they engaged the troops in a battle.

“The terrorists were clad in the usual pattern of dress of their counterparts operating in Borno and Yobe states.

“One of the apprehended armed men confessed that he had been fighting for the terrorists’ group in Borno State and was recently brought to Wukari area in furtherance of their mission,” the DHQ stated, adding that assorted arms and ammunition were recovered from them.

DHQ said that the curfew imposed on Wukari and its environs was expected to be relaxed as normalcy had returned to the town.

“Troops have maintained patrol of the area while a house-to-house search for arms is ongoing.

“In another development, troops on patrol of the Lake Chad Islands have made some arrests.

“Among those arrested was a boat operator who ferries terrorists across the Lake Chad while another confessed to being a supplier of hard drugs to the terrorist groups in the area.

“In the meantime, the search for the abducted students of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, is also being intensified,” the DHQ said.

Meanwhile, a coalition for women’s right groups in Borno State yesterday expressed its willingness to mobilise thousands of women to embark on a searchand- rescue mission into the notorious Sambisa forest. The objective is to ensure the release of the abducted students.

The women, under the auspices of BAOBAB Women’s Right, said they were ready to storm the major hideouts of the Boko Haram insurgents in Sambisa forest, where the abducted girls were believed to be held hostage.

Spokesperson for the group, Prof. Hauwa Abdu Biu, who briefed newsmen over the issue, said they resolved to embark on the expedition when it was evident that no reasonable progress was being achieved in the rescue of the girls.

“We are ready to go into the forest and search for the girls; in fact, we are prepared to risk our lives and reach up to Boko Haram camp and appeal to them to release the children to us so that they can reunite with their parents.

“There is nothing extraordinary in our quest to enter the dangerous forest, we learnt that some men in Chibok had earlier embarked on such mission, which later turned out to be fruitless.

“We felt that as mothers, we are in a better position to have the sympathy and concern over the fate of the missing girls. All we are after was to see to the successful release of the girls unhurt.

“Our target is not to fight the abductors but we want to beg them to release the girls in the name of the God that we all worship,” she said.

The group urged security forces to expedite action in their search-and-rescue mission of the students so that their parents could have a rest of mind.

She described the abduction as inhuman and abuse of human rights capable of scuttling efforts for enhanced girl-child education in the state and the country.

She said: “The abduction of the innocent girls violates their human rights, (it is a) crime against humanity and prohibited under international humanitarian law.

“Women in Borno strongly condemn this act in its totality as it deprives children their right to learn in a safe environment, thereby jeopardising their future.”

In a related development, Senate President David Mark has pleaded with the abductors to have a change of heart and let the children free.

Mark, who described the act as “embarrassingly sacrilegious”, urged the abductors to listen to the voices of reason and free the teenagers.

He made the plea in a statement in Abuja yesterday.

The statement said Mark imagined the harrowing experience of the students in the hands of their captors, the mental and psychological torture of their parents and guardians and restated the need for wise counsel to prevail on their captors to release them.

According to Mark, no rational being can justify the abduction of these children whose only offence is that they chose to go to school to better their lots and contribute to the socio-economic and political development of their fatherland.

“The situation is fast degrading and devaluing us as against the age-long cherished love for younger persons. It is a sad commentary and a terrible assault on our psyche as a people.

“In the good old days of Nigeria, this was a taboo and unarguably unheard of,” he said.

Mark, the statement explained, canvassed a synergy between the security agencies to rescue the girls from their captors, saying that the deteriorating situation was making a mockery of our nation.