he Federal Government has confirmed that 110 students of
the Government Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, are so far
unaccounted for, after insurgents believed to be from a faction of Boko Haram
invaded their school on Monday (19 Feb. 2018), reports ITRealms.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, gathered revealed this to ITRealms after a meeting between a Federal Government Delegation
and representatives of key stakeholders, including the state government, the
college, the parents, security agencies and Bursari local government, where
Dapchi is situated, in Damaturu on Sunday afternoon.
He said, based on the briefings from the Principal of the
College, Hajia Adama Abdulkarim, and the state Commissioner for Education, Hon.
Mohammed Lamin, 906 students - out of whom 110 have not been accounted for -
were in the school on the day of the attack.
Alhaji Mohammed also announced that the Federal Government
has directed the police and civil defence authorities in Yobe State to immediately
deploy their personnel to all the schools in the state in order to ensure the
security and safety of the students and their staffers.
The Minister disclosed that the Federal Government has
stepped up efforts to rescue the girls and return them safely to their parents,
saying the security agencies are working on many leads regarding the whereabouts
of the girls.
''This is the second time in four days that a Federal
Government delegation would visit Yobe State since the unfortunate incident.
This is a measure of the seriousness with which we are addressing the issue.
The security forces are leaving no stone unturned in their search for the
girls.
''We are back here in Yobe as part of efforts to provide
some succor to the parents of the girls, to let them know that they are not
alone and also to reassure them that we will not rest until we have found the
girls. We will carry the parents along on the efforts we are making,'' he said.
For his part, the Minister of Interior said the delegation
embarked on the trip in order to get the facts right ''so that the approach to
the solution can be correct''.
''We must get back the girls and also ensure that this does
not happen again,'' he said.
The Federal Government delegation, which comprised the
Ministers of Information and Culture as well as that of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman
Dambazau (retired), held an enlarged meeting that was attended by Governor
Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State; members of the state cabinet, the Principal and
Vice Principal of the school, representatives of the parents of the missing
girls and security agencies, among others.
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
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