Abubakar Mohammed, a resident of Dapchi, headquarters of Busari local government in Yobe state, says soldiers at a checkpoint in the town fled when Boko Haram fighters returned the kidnapped schoolgirls on Wednesday morning.

The students of Government Secondary Science and Technical College, Dapchi were abducted on February 19.

The insurgents are said to have returned the girls in the same vehicles which they used in conveying to the town earlier in the day.

Amnesty International (AI) has tasked the Federal Government to investigate alleged security failures leading to the abduction of the now released school girls from Dapchi in Yobe State.

On Wednesday, 105 girls out of 110 as well as a boy were released. Another five are said to have died according to one of the freed girls, from “heart attack, trauma and stress.” One is still missing, reportedly held for insisting on her faith.

Osai Ojigho, AI director in Nigeria, described the release of the girls as a huge relief for their families.

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.