The Federal Government said the number of Dapchi schoolgirls released on Wednesday has increased from 76 to 101, following the documentation of more of the freed girls by security agencies.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who gave the update in a statement issued in Abuja, said that the number could still increase as the documentation of the freed girls was ongoing.

Mohammed had in an earlier statement confirmed the release of 76 and later, 91 of the 110 abducted students of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe on Feb. 19.

The Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, has asked the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on drug and substance abuse in the country.

Governor Ahmed said that the right steps must be taken by the government at all levels towards curbing the menace of drug abuse which is spreading in the society.

He made this known during a courtesy visit by the National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Ahmed Yakassi, on Tuesday at the Government House in Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital.

The federal government says 91 of the 110 abducted Dapchi schoolgirls have been released.

The schoolgirls, abducted from Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state, returned Wednesday morning.

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, in a statement said the release of the girls was “unconditional”.

The Defence Headquarters has refuted the claims by Amnesty International (AI) that the Nigerian military failed to prevent the abduction of 110 schoolgirls in Yobe State despite being alerted. The Nigerian Army on Tuesday said this claim by Amnesty International is outright falsehood and misleading.

The management of Arik Air says operations were disrupted on Sunday after an aircraft was hit by a truck at the Lagos airport while another aircraft could not take off in Owerri.

Arik said it has since reported the incidents to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in line with standard operating procedure.

“Arik Air has reported incidents involving two of its aircraft on Sunday, March 18, 2018, to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). This is in line with standard operating procedure and the airline’s high safety standards,” the statement read.

Nigeria’s military was on Tuesday accused of ignoring repeated warnings about the movements of Boko Haram fighters before they kidnapped 110 schoolgirls in the country’s restive northeast.

The students — the youngest of whom is aged just 10 — were seized from the town of Dapchi, Yobe state, on February 19 in virtually identical circumstances to those in Chibok in 2014.

Then, more than 200 schoolgirls were taken in an attack that brought sustained world attention on the Islamist insurgency and sparked a global campaign for their release.

President Muhammadu Buhari has called the Dapchi abduction a “national disaster” and vowed to use negotiation rather than force to secure their release.