The April 2014 incident, generally referred to as Chibok Girls, started almost the same way as the current case, the Boko Haram attack on a Girls Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe state. The federal government has confirmed that 110 students of the school are missing, after Boko Haram terrorists attacked the school last week.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the figure known on Sunday in Damaturu, Yobe state capital, after a meeting between top government officials and representatives of key stakeholders. These included the state government, the college administrators, parents, security agencies and Bursari Local Government. Alhaji Mohammed said that based on briefings from the Principal of the college, Hajia Adama Abdulkarim, and the state Commissioner for Education, Mohammed Lamin, 906 students were in the school on the day of the attack.
The details emerged as the Nigerian Air Force announced that it had deployed additional air assets, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance platforms, to the North-East to conduct day and night searches amid ongoing efforts to locate the girls.
The Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), explained that the delegation came to Damaturu to get the facts right. The Minister said renewed efforts were being conducted in close liaison with other surface security forces. Earlier the Air Force declared that it will work hard to locate the missing girls but it appealed to the local residents to cooperate with its men in other to fish out the girls quickly.
But observers are worried about the dilly-dally tactics of the government.
They insisted that the government should be queried for the alleged security lapses in the area and its initial attempts to deny that the girls were actually missing. The critics believe that such rigmarole hampered the immediate rescue of the girls.
The matter has been aggravated by the disclosure by the Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, that the withdrawal of troops around Dapchi by the Defence Ministry made the area prone to attack. He pointed out that the move emboldened the militants to attack the school and abduct the girls.
Governor Gaidam was saying the obvious when he asked, “What alternative security measures were put in place to protect the people after the troops were withdrawn? What action was taken to guarantee adequate security in the area?” The answer points in the way of the incidence at Chibok in 2014. It is hoped that there will be no need to count the days for Dapchi Girls!
