Question are currently being asked on Wednesday, about the fate of scores of students in Government Girls Science and Technical Secondary School at Dapchi town in Bursari local government area of Yobe state- in a Chibok-style attack this week by Boko Haram insurgents that left scores missing.
While there is no official statement yet at the time of writing, there is a lot of uncertainty about whether the missing students were kidnapped, if the attack is politically motivated or simply a way to raise money, despite the government claims, Boko Haram will be defeated soon.
In 2014, 379 days before the general elections in March 2015, 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State. Monday’s incident, have already sparked fears of a repeat, as it is exactly 366 days to another general election in 2019, slated for 20 February.
The similarity of the attack is such that also both are state-run boarding schools teaching girls of similar age.
Boko Haram, whose name translates from Hausa to “Western education is forbidden”, has targeted and kidnapped thousands of women and young girls since beginning its bloody insurgency in 2009.
But it was only the mass abduction of 276 girls in Chibok, in neighbouring Borno state in April 2014 that brought global attention to the conflict for the first time.
“We might be looking at a case of kidnap for ransom, or for the insurgents to have a good bargain when speaking with the government, if indeed the girls were kidnapped,” John Omole a security expert told BusinessDay on phone.
Although there is no official announcement both from the police and the government at the time writing, on the alleged abduction, Inuwa Mohammed, was quoted by AFP as saying that her 16-year-old daughter, Falmata was missing, and she was in a confused state.
“Nobody is telling us anything officially,” she said. “We still don’t know how many of our daughters were recovered and how many are still missing.”
Reacting to the attack on the school, Convener Bring Back our girls, Oby Ezekwesili questioned the presidency and Nigerian Military in a tweet directly, asking if they are aware of the Yobe attack and calling on them to stop “keeping Nigerians in suspense.”
Commenting on the incident on Wednesday, Ezekwesili said she hopes a repeat of the kidnap of 276 students from a Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno, would not occur.
She recalled that when the Chibok incident occurred in 2014, what “impaired” rescue action within first 48 hours was the federal government’s “shoddy handling” of the matter.
“God forbids that the presidency, President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerian army continues to keep the public in suspense any further on what really happened two days ago at the Government Girls Science and Technical Secondary School, Dapchi, in Yobe,” she tweeted.
“Let me ask the President. Are you at all aware that it is being alleged that 94 daughters of Nigeria were abducted from the Boarding School -Government Girls Science and Technical Secondary School, Dapchi Yobe State after a Boko Haram attack?” Ezekwesili said.
However, Yobe state Police Commissioner Sumonu Abdulmaliki on Tuesday told reporters Boko Haram had not abducted any girls in Dapchi.
David Ibemere
