February 28, 2018 The Skanner Page 9
News
is directed to ensure the
safety of our schools and
students.”
Many fear the girls
seized last week were ab-
ducted to become brides
Students Too Scared to Return
to Nigeria School After Attack
AP PHOTO
Boko Haram extremists seized 110 girls in a raid
remniscent of the group’s kidnapping of 276 girls in 2014
This image taken from video shows the exterior of Government Girls Science and Tech College in Dapchi,
Yobe State, Nigeria on Feb. 22. Parents in northern Nigeria say more than 100 girls are still missing three
days after suspected Boko Haram extremists attacked their school. The announcement comes after
government officials in Yobe state acknowledged that some 50 young women remained unaccounted for
in the Monday evening attack.
By Sam Olukoya
Associated Press
LAGOS, Nigeria —
Frightened students on
Monday stayed away
from the school in north-
ern Nigeria where Boko
Haram extremists seized
110 girls in a raid a week
ago, while the military
said it had handed over
the town’s security to po-
lice ahead of the attack
because it was “relatively
calm.”
The mass abduction
from the Government
Girls Science and Techni-
cal College in Dapchi has
reminded many of Boko
Haram’s kidnapping of
276 girls from a boarding
school in Chibok in 2014.
Anger has been grow-
ing as the government
struggles to respond to
the latest attack. Teach-
ers resumed classes a day
after Nigeria’s govern-
ment for the first time
acknowledged the num-
ber of girls missing, but
students were absent.
“They are too fright-
ened to go there. We
parents are equally
frightened to see our
daughters go there,” said
Mohammed Mele, who
has two children in the
school. “Many other par-
ents are not likely to send
their children back,” an-
other parent, Moham-
med Ibrahim, told The
Associated Press.
The school will reopen
when “frayed nerves cool
down,” Yobe state educa-
tion commissioner Mo-
hammed Lamin said.
The fate of the 110
girls is not known, but
witnesses have said the
Islamic extremists spe-
cifically asked where the
girls’ school was located.
Some witnesses reported
seeing young women tak-
en away at gunpoint. In-
formation Minister Lai
Mohammed said 906 stu-
dents were in the school
at the time.
The military rejected
reports that its recent
withdrawal from Dapchi
caused the Boko Haram
attack, but in a statement
it confirmed having
handed over security of
the town to local police
“on the premise that Dap-
chi has been relatively
calm and peaceful.” The
military has not said
when that handover oc-
curred.
The Bring Back Our
Girls movement that
brought the Chibok mass
abduction to world atten-
tion has embraced the
cause of the Dapchi fam-
ilies, though with some
astonishment that the
tragedy has happened
again. As the fourth an-
niversary of the Chibok
kidnappings approach-
es, the movement says
112 of those schoolgirls
are yet to be found.
“It is terribly EX-
HAUSTING but WE
SHALL STAND. WE
SHALL,” one of the move-
ment’s organizers, Oby
Ezekewsili, said on Twit-
ter of the Dapchi attack.
The latest mass abduc-
tion is a major challenge
for President Muham-
madu Buhari, who has
called the Dapchi kid-
nappings a “national di-
saster” and vowed that
no effort will be spared
to locate the girls.
Buhari won elections
in 2015 while making the
fight against Boko Ha-
ram a priority. His gov-
ernment has repeatedly
claimed that the extrem-
ist group has been de-
feated, but it continues to
carry out deadly suicide
bombings in the north,
often using women and
children who have been
kidnapped and indoctri-
nated.
In a reminder that some
of those kidnapped have
been freed, Buhari on
Monday met with three
University of Maiduguri
lecturers and 10 police
officers who were seized
in June by Boko Haram
extremists and recently
released.
“The government re-
mains unrelenting to-
wards rescuing all those
abducted,” the president
said, adding that he has
ordered all security
agencies to “immediately
ensure that every effort
for Boko Haram extrem-
ists. Some of the school-
girls taken in the Chibok
mass abduction were
forced to marry their
captors.
About 100 of the Chi-
bok girls have never re-
turned to their families.
Nigeria faces another
presidential
election
next year.