Parents rest controversies, put number of missing Dapchi schoolgirls at 105

The controversies over the actual number of schoolgirls missing from the Government Girls Science and Tech Secondary School, Dapchi, Yobe State, after Boko Haram attack on the school may have been rested as a support group in the state has put the number at 105.

The attack which happened in Dapchi, Bursari Local Government Area of Yobe State, has been shrouded with several controversies, especially about the actual number of girls missing.

Following the attacks on the school, the girls were said to have run into the bush.

However, after several of them failed to return home, their parents raised the alarm that they have been kidnapped.

On how they were able to compile the list of the actual girls still missing, some of the parents of the schoolgirls who spoke with journalists who have flooded the town, explained that they set up a support group after the attack.

The group was set up in similar fashion as was done in the case of the kidnap of 214 Chibok schoolgirls in Borno State on April 14, 2014.

According the group’s chairman, Bashir Manzo, “Our first step was to compile a comprehensive list of all the missing girls. So far, we have compiled the names of 105.”

Manzo who’s 16-year-old daughter, Fatima is among the missing girls said that parents of the victims are currently working to meet with Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, to discuss ways he can help them recover the missing girls.

“We believe he (Gaidam) was misinformed (about the rescue of 48 of the girls). The school authorities from the beginning denied and kept denying that our daughters were taken.

“We will see the governor and seek his help, as well as anyone who matters that can in one way or another assist in ensuring the freedom of our girls,” Manzo said.

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Meanwhile, some of the parents of the missing girls alleged on Friday that the state government and police have been clamping down on them for attacking the governor’s convoy on Thursday.

In a tweet on Friday, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter in Nigeria, Stephanie Hegarty, said that a parent called her from Yobe State to say that he was in hiding because an order had been issued for his arrest.

But the police is said to have debunked the claim, saying that there was no such thing as arresting any parent of the abducted schoolgirls over the vandalisation of the governor’s convoy.

 

 

 

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