A big question mark now hangs over the Nigeria - United States partnership aimed at rescuing the over 200 schoolgirls held by Boko Haram since their abduction from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14.

An indication to this effect emerged yesterday when the US disagreed with the claim of Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, who announced on Monday that the military had located the girls and was working hard to rescue them. “The good news for the girls is that we know where they are but we cannot tell you,” Badeh had told demonstrators in the capital, Abuja as the hostage crisis entered its seventh week. “We are working. We will get the girls back,” he added.

Yesterday, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki poured cold water on the claim, telling Reuters when asked to comment on Badeh’s statement: “We don’t have independent information from the United States to support these reports that you referenced.”

Disagreeing with Badeh’s statement, Psaki said: “We, as a matter of policy and for the girls’ safety and wellbeing, would not discuss publicly this sort of information regardless.”

News Express reports that America earlier this month deployed military specialists to work with the Nigerian military to rescue the abducted girls after embattled President Goodluck Jonathan accepted the country’s offer of assistance in this regard.

•Photo shows some of the abducted Chibok girls as appeared in a video recently released by Boko Haram.