The question bordering many Nigerians after the breaking news about the abduction of female students in Dapchi, Yobe state is – How did the so-called demolished-and-downgraded-Boko Haram manage to abduct more than 100 schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe state? Does that not show that the Islamic terrorists are alive and well, despite the efforts of the Muhammadu Buhari government to downplay it? It means that the federal government has resorted to rhetoric to convince Nigerians that the group does no longer have fire power.
Since the raid on Monday, last week, many Nigerians have become angry and eager to know how the heavily armed fighters were able to storm the town in Yobe state without encountering any resistance.
But eye witnesses in Dapchi say that it was a well-planned attack that specifically targeted the state-run boarding school. Residents in the dusty town near the border with Niger Republic said they saw about 15 vehicles heading towards the school that evening.
They said the armed men who looked ordinary and harmless asked for directions to the school. The attack and the confusion that followed reminded Nigerians of the abduction of 276 girls from Chibok, in neighbouring Borno state, in April 2014.
One does not have to be a counter-terrorism specialist to know that if the militants could kidnap more than 100 girls like that, it shows they have sizeable means at their disposal and a secure place to hide the girls.
Another worrying indication, according to the Yobe state governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, is that soldiers who used to be stationed at strategic checkpoints in Dapchi, were redeployed last month. That left ordinary uniformed police as the town’s only defense. Why? Well, this poser is part of what the Nigerian government committee set up last Wednesday will tackle.
