110 girls unaccounted for in Yobe school attack, says government

The Federal Government  on Sunday, February 25, 2018 confirmed that 110 schoolgirls of Government Girls Technical School, Dapchi are unaccounted for in the Boko Haram attack on the school last Monday.

Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this to newsmen in Damaturu after a closed door meeting between a Federal Government delegation,Yobe State Government, security agencies, community leaders and parents of the missing schoolgirls.

“It was a meeting between stakeholders to get a first hand information and, out of the total register of 906 students in school that day, 110 students are unaccounted,” he said.

The minister said far reaching decisions were reached among which included the deployment of police and Civil Defence Corps to all schools.

He said security agencies were synergising to ensure the rescue of every student abducted by the insurgents.

“No stone will be left unturned in our determination to rescue these girls,” the minister assured.

He said the federal, state governments and parents would collaborate with security agents to work towards successful rescue of the students.

Mohammed reiterated that the insurgents were being contained and now looking for soft targets.

“Government will remain focused and resolute in the fight against insurgency to rescue the students and every Nigerian in their custody.”

NAN reports that Government Girls Technical College Dapchi was last Monday attacked by Boko Haram insurgents and, abducted the schoolgirls.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Air Force (NAF), says it has intensified efforts to locate the missing Dapchi girls by deploying additional air assets, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms to the North East Zone.

The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Vice-Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja.

Adesanya said that the deployment of ISR was a renewed effort at locating the missing Dapchi girls.

He said that NAF, following confirmation of reports that some of the girls were yet to be accounted for, had deployed some ISR platforms and helicopters to search for and possibly locate the missing girls and the Boko Haram Terrorists.

“Although these search operations were conducted in a covert manner  for obvious reasons, the efforts did not yield the desired results.

“Accordingly, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, directed the immediate deployment of additional air assets and NAF personnel to the Northeast with the sole mission of conducting day and night searches for the missing girls.

“It is noteworthy that the renewed efforts at locating the girls are being conducted in close liaison with other security forces  while the NAF will spare no efforts at possibly locating the girls via its air operations.

” It also seizes this opportunity to call on anyone, especially the locals, who might have any information that could lead to the location of the girls to bring such information forward to NAF authorities or other relevant security agencies,” he said.