MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Authorities in Nigeria's northeast Borno state denied on Thursday a statement by the armed forces which had said most of the more than 100 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels from a local school had been freed in a military rescue operation.
"As I am talking to you now (Thursday), only 14 of the students have returned," an aide to Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima told Reuters, asking not to be named. Armed forces spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade had announced late on Wednesday that only eight of the students were still missing.
There was no immediate explanation for the contradictory versions regarding the large group of female students kidnapped late on Monday by Islamist Boko Haram insurgents from a school at Chibok in Borno state.
(Reporting by Lanre Ola; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
