Controversy is surrounding the abduction of female students by the Boko Haram sect from the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) in Chibok, Borno State last week, as the actual number of girls taken is now uncertain. Parents of the missing girls said yesterday that 234 of their daughters remain unaccounted for.
The parents made this known when the state governor, Mr Kashim Shettima finally visited the attacked school yesterday.
This was as the search party, made up of mostly parents and volunteers from Chibok had to return home, having been warned of the dangers of moving into the camps of the Boko Haram at the heart of Sambisa without any serious arms.
The parents of the missing students also faulted the claim by government officials that 45 of the girls had escaped and had been reunited with them. According to the parents, only 39 girls had escaped so far.
The principal, Mrs Asabe Kwambura however insisted that the number of girls reunited with their parents was 43. She also claimed that lots of students were in the school on the day of the attack. She said that the total number of girls in boarding at the school was 405 and that 234 were still missing.
Kwambura and the state commissioner for education, Musa Inuwa Kubo, had both said that 129 students that were taking science exams were in the school at the time of the attack and that 45 of them had been reunited with their families, having escaped captivity.
But the parents insisted that the number of students in the school was more than that. They argued that some of the girls who were not taking the science exams were in school, waiting for their friends in science classes to finish their exams before they would all leave the school together when the incident occurred.
At the school premises, Governor Shettima was conducted round the completely burnt down school. The commissioner for education said the school was set ablaze after the students had been taken away by the abductors.
One of the parents, Mrs Shettima Hamma said, “We trailed the abductors of our daughters into very dangerous places inside the forest, but we couldn’t go far because we were warned against going further since we have no sophisticated weapons that could match that of those holding our daughters.
“When we heard that they had attacked the school, we rushed down here, but found our daughters missing. We were asked to register the names of our daughters, which we all did, but up to this moment, we have not seen 234 of our daughters. We have only seen 39 of our daughters that were able to escape on their own.”
Another parent, who did not introduce himself while briefing the governor and other visitors to the school, recounted in detail how they had on their own, without any security personnel trailed the abductors into Sambisa Forest, a distance of over 50km from Chibok.
He described how they had ventured into the forest along a path following directions given them by a number of people they met along the way, until they arrived at a point where they were advised to go no further, as it was too dangerous.
He said, “We continued to move on until we met an old man who warned us that if we ventured into that part of the forest without any security personnel following us, we would all be killed together with our daughters. He advised us that we go back to Damboa and get more security agents to help, lest we embark on a most dangerous mission.” – Leadership.
