Abduction of 110 girls, security breaches and GGSS closes indefinitely
- In Nigeria, families still have no news of the 110 missing girls after the attack on the Dapchi School in the north-east of the country.
The incident, which is reminiscent of the 276 high school students in Chibock kidnapped in April 2014, raises many questions about the army’s ability to secure north-eastern Nigeria, despite repeated government statements boasting about to have put an end to the insurrection.
Head of State Muhammadu Buhari on Monday (February 26th) ordered security agencies to secure all schools, while local authorities denounced the absence of soldiers on the day of the kidnapping.
Were there soldiers in Dapchi? The question raises, once again, in this case, the controversy.
According to local reports, a military garrison had been set up to protect the town until the soldiers were redeployed last month.
Ibrahim Gaidam, governor of the state of Yobe where Dapchi is, also regretted, on Monday, February 26, the lack of security in the zone.
“I want one thing to be clear: there was no military presence in Dapchi at the time,” he said.
These remarks were rejected en bloc by the staff of the armies. Interviewed by the AFP, John Agim, spokesman for the army, maintained that a military post was “about thirty kilometres” from the school.
“When they were alerted, they went to the scene, but it was already too late,” he said.
The head of state, Muhammadu Buhari, has made the security of north-eastern Nigeria a priority of his mandate.
Although the situation has improved overall since 2015, people are still regularly victims of attacks and suicide bombings, which raises the question of the ability of the Nigerian army to defeat Boko Haram.
Th Yobe State Commissioner of Education, Mohammed Lamin, has said that Government Girls’ Science and Technology College in Dapchi, Yobe State, where 110 girls disappeared after a Boko Haram attack will remain closed indefinitely.
He made this known in a statement issued to newsmen in Damaturu on Monday.
While calling for tighter security, Lamin said: “The government girl’s school in Dapchi has not reopened. It’s not feasible to reopen the school in the current situation.
“We still have over 100 girls that are unaccounted for. The other girls that were found are not in the right frame of mind to return to school. They are still in trauma.”
Lamin maintained that the school would remain closed “for a while, until the situation normalises and the girls are psychologically prepared to resume.”
