Missing Yobe Students: Buhari risks making Jonathan’s mistake on Chibok girls’ abduction
Reports of the disappearance of over 70 students of Government Girls Science Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe state, have started making the rounds and like his predecessor, President Buhari seems to be dismissing the reports as mere distraction.
Goodluck Jonathan became the subject of intense criticism after he attended a rally just as reports of the abduction of over 200 Chibok schoolgirls was making the rounds in 2014.
Jonathan’s aides at the time, dismissed the reports as a mere propaganda by the opposition.
By the time the government would realise the news was authentic, the girls had been driven far into the bushes – never to return the same again.
Jonathan was duly voted out and, till date, 112 girls of those abducted schoolgirls remain in captivity.
Today, Buhari runs the risk of falling into same pit as Jonathan regarding the disappearance of the students in Yobe.
Members of the Boko Haram terrorist sect stormed the school on Monday and reports at the time indicated that only food items were successfully carted away by the insurgents.
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 also said to have stormed the school to demand information on their missing children.
Some of them have expressed fear that their children have been abducted by the insurgents.
Police, however, maintain it was yet to get any official report of missing persons from the school.
So far, there has also been no word, or action, from the office of the President and while the report requires proper verification, Buhari could go one better over Jonathan by reacting swiftly to the situation to ensure his predecessor’s mistakes are not repeated.
