Confusion grows over whereabouts of scores of Yobe students after Boko Haram invasion
Concerns over the whereabouts of at least 60 students of the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe state have arisen.
Since members of the Boko Haram terrorist sect stormed the school on Monday, scores of students have been declared missing.
Reports following the invasion of the school on Monday had said the terrorists only carted away food items.
New reports, however, say teachers at the school have discovered the number of available students is lesser than expected.
The school staff say there were 710 students at the state-run boarding school, which caters for girls aged 11 and above, but not all have been accounted for thus far.
Parents of missing students were said to have stormed the school to demand information on their missing children.
“Our girls have been missing for two days and we don’t know their whereabouts,” Abubakar Shehu, whose niece is among those missing, told AFP.
“Although we were told they had run to some villages, we have been to all these villages mentioned without any luck. We are beginning to harbour fears the worst might have happened.
“We have the fear that we are dealing with another Chibok scenario.”
Inuwa Mohammed, whose 16-year-old daughter, Falmata, is also missing, said it was a confused picture and that parents had been frantically searching surrounding villages.
“Nobody is telling us anything officially,” he said. “We still don’t know how many of our daughters were recovered and how many are still missing.
Police say they have no reports of abductions following the attack.
Yobe’s education commissioner, Mohammed Lamin, said the school had been shut and a roll call of all the girls who have returned was being conducted.
“It is only after the head-count that we will be able to say whether any girls were taken,” he said.
Some of the girls had fled to villages up to 30 kilometres (nearly 20 miles) away through the remote bushland, he added.
Boko Haram are still holding at least 112 Chibok girls captive.
