Three things for March 2
1. 279 kidnapped girls in Nigeria released
Today, Nigeria’s governor confirmed hundreds of schoolgirls abducted last week from a boarding school in the northwestern Zamfara state were released.
Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle announced that 279 girls have been freed. According to AP News, the Nigerian government said the jihadist rebel group Boko Haram kidnapped 317 girls last week.
Gunmen abducted the girls from the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town on Friday, according to AP News. This is the latest in a series of mass kidnappings of students in the West African nation. Some of the girls are as young as 10.
Since the abduction, Nigerian police and military have been carrying out joint operations to rescue the girls.
Matawalle said the girls would be taken for medical examinations before being reunited with their families.
2. Chattanooga mayor and city council elections today
Today, Chattanooga residents are heading to the polls to elect a new mayor and city council. There are 15 people on the ballot for mayor this year. Seven of the nine districts in Chattanooga are contested this year, with two running unopposed.
Chip Henderson in District 1 and Dr. Carol Berz in District 6 are running unopposed this year.
According to WRCB, Chattanooga has nearly 50 polling locations open for the city election. Polling places will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. today.
3. FBI director to testify in Congress today
FBI Director Christopher Wray is testifying before Congress today about the bureau’s response to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the rising threat from white supremacists and other domestic violent extremists.
According to NPR, members of Congress are looking for answers about the security failures that allowed the Capitol to be breached by the mob. They also want to know what the FBI is doing to counter the danger posed by violent far-right extremists.
“I think domestic terrorism, religious and racial-based hate groups have become a major threat in America,” the committee’s Democratic chairman, Dick Durbin, told reporters on Monday. “I want to know if our intelligence operations have taken this into consideration in establishing their priorities.”
Wray has only spoken publicly once since the riot. Eight days after the attack, he said the FBI began aggressively tracking down suspects and monitoring potential threats.
