Against the backdrop of the conflicting information on the actual number of girls abducted by terror group, Boko Haram at the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, the West African Examination Council, WAEC Friday night told the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan that it enrolled 530 female and male students for the examination.
It said the examination was ongoing, when the insurgents abducted more than 200 girls in the school.
According to the Head of WAEC National Office, Mr. Charles Eguridu, who took a barrage of questions from the women at the meeting, which started at 7pm and ended at about 11.30pm, the 530 students comprised 135 male and 396 female, who registered and were taking part in the examination at the time the over 200 girls were abducted on April 15.
Eguridu explained that after the abduction, 189 candidates were relocated to Uba where they continued their examination.
Eguridu further disclosed that although the school was a girls’ school in WAEC’s records, it had been converted into a mixed school, although the exam body was yet to receive a formal request for the change.
He said his office was trying to find out how many male and female candidates made up the 189 that were continuing with the examination.
He further told the women that the computation would likely lead to the exact number of female candidates who had been abducted by the insurgents.
Eguridu, said the examination body did not want to go public with all the information it had to avoid unnecessary tension in the country, especially between the federal and state governments. He, however, indicted the Borno State Government for the abduction. examination in the schools and that they are not ready to relocate their students from Chibok and indeed other areas to Maiduguri or nearby locations where security agencies could provide security.
“So, if we failed to conduct the examination, the world will blame us. So at great risks, my officers went to Chibok and conducted the examinations.
“After the unfortunate incident when the students were abducted, our staff now got a response from the state that they were now ready to relocate the remaining students to another place called Uba. And as I speak, 189 candidates are continuing with the examination in Uba.”
