Dapchi Schoolgirls Abduction: Staff, Parents, Locals Narrate Harrowing Ordeal

February 24, 2018 Wisdom Nwedene Hot News, National, Politics 0

On the evening of February 19, students of Government Girls Technical College Dapchi, about to have breakfast, heard a deafening sound, accompanied by gunshots. In the ensuing confusion, students scattered, making the situation difficult for parents, and the government to have clarity on the whereabouts of many of them. Though state government and security operatives said they couldn’t establish any case of abduction, parents, teachers and students have many stories to tell. At the scene, residents, school staff and weeping parents could be seen.

Briefing the Yobe State Police Commissioner, the Principal of the school, Hajia Adama Abdulkareem, who could not account for the number of missing students, said she was at home when some frightened students came and told her that the school was under attack. “Before we came out, the insurgents were already in the quarters. Students and teachers were all jumping over the fence,” she said.

A schoolteacher, Malam Auwal, currently battling with a fracture on his thigh, which he sustained when the insurgents struck, said he was home when the attack began. “We started running. My wife was sick then, so she could not run very fast. I tried to lift her so that we could run faster, but a bullet from behind grazed my thigh. I asked my wife to run, so that one of us will be safe, but she refused. She was shouting at them to kill her and spare me. When they came closer, one of them told her to stay calm, that they will not kill her. She lay completely on my body to prevent another shot, and they left us.”

Auwal’s wife dragged him into the school mosque, where they hid until the insurgents left. Around 12:15am some military men arrived the school and gave them first aid, then transported the couple to a hospital in Damaturu. He told Daily Trust that he heard some schoolgirls crying “Mun shiga uku!” (Hausa for ‘We’re in trouble’) and the insurgents yelling at them to keep quiet.

Auwal said the attack confirmed fears, as for a very long time there has been no security personnel attached to the school. “Some weeks ago, military presence disappeared from a nearby checkpoint. I believe the insurgents must have been monitoring that.”

Hadiza Jibo, School Matron, said when they came out during the attack, students and staff were running helter-skelter. “It was total chaos,” she said, adding: “We don’t know how many students got missing, but according to the grapevine, the figure is over 50.

Hassana Mohammed, 13, said she was holding her sister’s hand when the insurgents struck, and came face-to-face with the armed men. They threatened to shoot, and somehow in the ensuing melee Fatima managed to escape, even if her 10-year-old sister, Fatsuma, is still nowhere to be found.

One Malam Dadin-Kowa helped save many of the schoolgirls, practically tossing an estimated 50 of them over the school fence, to relative safety.

Malam Idi Adamu, whose 13-year-old daughter is among the missing girls, said she was in the company of her sisters when the insurgents struck. “They were about to escape through the gate, when insurgents accosted them. Three of the sisters ran away, but two others, including my daughter, were captured by the terrorists, who forced them into a waiting vehicle,” he said.

A tea seller, Mohammad Kabo, said a fleet of vehicles drove past him suddenly that morning. “They asked me to pack up and leave, and asked a man to show them where ‘Makarantar Boko’ (Western school) is. After an hour or so, I heard their vehicles coming back, with girls wailing for help. I was dying within, but there was nothing I could do. In the morning, we heard that the schoolgirls went missing,” he said.

“It’s painful – and shocking – each time we hear the government say the case of abduction hasn’t been established,” Kabo told Daily Trust.

The school guard, Muhammad Baakoro, said he was standing by the school water pump when he heard a gunshot. His initial thought was that police fired a warning shot to disperse opposing football fans, from some competing clubs in viewing a center, but the gunshots continue coming towards the school. Later, an explosion rent the air, and the chaos began.

Baakoro narrated: “The children initially thought the insurgents were soldiers that came to rescue them, but seeing their appearance, dusty and unkempt, with rickety vehicles, I knew then that they were insurgents. They had red lances, wearing dirty military uniforms, yelling at children to get into a Tata truck. ‘Ku zo ku shiga, mu taimake ku’ (loosely meaning ‘Get in, let’s help you’).” He said the only option for him then was to run for his life.

Baakoro made it over the school fence and began to run. “About ten students were also running with me, crying for me to help them. We ran together, and I stopped after reaching a safe distance and took them to friend’s house at a nearby village. That was how we escaped,” he said, adding: “To me, they targeted this school.”

At the dining hall, Daily Trust met Malama Fatu, a caterer at the school’s kitchen, who said on the fateful day, the insurgents whisked many kids who were yet to eat breakfast. “Some of the children are below 10. Ever since this incident, I haven’t been able to eat or sleep well because the memories keep coming back,” she said, adding that she fears what could happen to some of the schoolchildren in the desert.

“I remember how I spoke with some newly-admitted students, who are among the ones currently missing. I feel for their parents, honestly. These are children, girls between the ages of ten to twelve, for Allah’s sake,” she sighed.

Yobe State government apologized for issuing to the public, information concerning the alleged abduction and rescue of 111 schoolgirls at Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi. The government described the information as “unreliable”. The press release was signed by the state’s Director-General Press Affairs, Malam Abdullahi Bego.

Bego’s statement read: “We issued the statement on the basis of information provided by one of the security agencies that is involved in the fight against Boko Haram and which we had no reason to doubt. We have now established that the information we relied on to make the statement was not credible.”

The statement added that Governor Gaidam shares deeply and personally in the grief about the unfortunate event.

Source : Daily Trust

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