The State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, announced this on Tuesday, at Malam-Fatori, Abadam Local Government Area, headquarters of the Nigeria/Niger Republic border.

The refugees are currently in neighboring Bosso, Tumur and Diffa, all in the Republic of Niger.

Governor Zulum said he was at Malam-Fatori to see for himself the clearance process in the town, and to also offer support to the military ahead of his May 2023 target for safe and voluntary return of refugees from the neighbouring Francophone country to their ancestral community.

We want the people to return next month (May) for normal activities to return to this part of the state, insha’Allah. We will give all the necessary support to the Nigerian military to make sure that this objective is achieved, insha’Allah,” he declared.

“We call on our people to be resilient and give maximum cooperation to the security operatives working to restore normalcy”, Zulum said during his interaction with the Commanding Officer of 68 battalion, Malam-Fatori, Col. A. Onyeukwu.

Zulum was accompanied by the House of Reps-elect for Marte, Monguno and Nganzai, Engr. Bukar Talba, Commissioner for Local Government and Emirates Affairs, Sugun Mai Mele, Transition Council Chairman of Abadam and some prominent indigenes of Abadam

Hassana was one of over 200 schoolgirls abducted at a Government Secondary School in Chibok on April 14, 2014, by Boko Haram insurgents.

Recall that the other Chibok girl, Ruth Ngladar Pogu and a man said to be her husband had presented themselves to the Nigerian Army on July 28, 2021, at a location in Bama and were recently handed over to the governor

Zulum’s message, contained in a statement issued on Tuesday, November 10,  by his spokesman, Malam Isa Gusau, was in reaction to the conviction of 6 Nigerians in UAE over Boko Haram funding.

He said, “I urge the Federal Government to consider setting up a multi-stakeholder team with trusted representatives from the Federal Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, NIA, the Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA, the Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad, and the ECOWAS Intergovernmental Action Group on Terrorist Financing in West Africa, GIABA, to assiduously work with the UAE Government to look into the issues raised by families crying foul play, and more importantly, to follow-up on the findings by the UAE with the hope of using the intelligence, if authenticated, to expand search on other Boko Haram sponsors that may be helping in similar ways”.