The information coming out of Yobe kept somersaulting. After the initial denial by Yobe state and several agencies government including the police that no schoolgirl was missing after Boko Haram terrorists attacked Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi on Monday, the presidency and the state had come out to say the abducted girls have been rescued. Now, the claim of rescue is said to be false.
This is reminiscent of ping-pong of conflicting information that characterized the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls 4 years ago. Dapchi is about 275km north-west of Chibok.
In a statement, the Yobe state government said an unspecified number of girls had been rescued from the “terrorists who abducted them” and were now with the army. Reuters news agency quoted parents and a government official as saying that 76 girls had been rescued and at least 13 were still missing
Two girls had been found dead, Reuters said, without specifying how they had died.
The Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, confirmed the abduction and rescue of the schoolgirls on his twitter page, he wrote: “The Yobe State Government hereby informs the public that the girls at Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) whose school was attacked by Boko Haram terrorists last Monday have been rescued by the Nigerian Army.”
How the girls were rescued, how many were rescued and how many are still missing are still unclear. It was reported that the schoolgirls were rescued at Jilli-Muwarti, a border village between Gaidam in Yobe state and Borno State.
All the news about the rescue of the girls were debunked by the governor of the state, Ibrahim Gaidam when he visited Dapchi on Thursday. He said none of the girls have been rescued. He, however, assured the parents that the security operatives are still searching for the girls.
The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, that of defence, Mansur Dan Ali and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Khadija Bukar Abba were also in Dapchi on Thursday. They met with the governor after which they address the families of the captives. The assure them that the rescue of the girls will be prioritized.
The information coming from Yobe is practically incomprehensible. Both the state and the federal government did not know the number of girls missing AFTER 4 DAYS. The purported rescue is false. The government must not mismanage the Dapchi kidnapping the way that of Chibok was utterly mismanaged.
