A law maker representing Bursari/Yunusari/Gaidam Federal Constituency of Yobe State, Mr. Goni Bukar has said the 110 students of Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi who were abducted by Boko Haram terrorists from their hostels on February 19 were still being held in Bulabulin, Yunusari local government area of Yobe State.
Speaking in an interview in Damaturu, Bukar said: “The girls are within Yobe. We have an idea that they are in Bulabulin, Yunusari local government. The military is aware that Boko Haram has been in that place for over four years. They live in that place like their own city,” he said.
He therefore appealed to improve upon the search for the students and rescue them.
“I cannot blame the military because I am speaking with those that are carrying out the operation. We have been speaking and they are telling me everything that they are doing; so, I cannot say I will blame anybody in the military. They are doing everything but I think they need to improve in their search so as to rescue those girls.
“This issue is beyond the military that we have in Yobe … It is not the issue of sending 10 policemen or 20 soldiers. It is a matter of commitment. That is what we need. If they like, let them give me the uniform and I will wear it and go and show them the place. Even the day of the incident, the chairman, member, House of Assembly and I went to Gumsa because we had information that three of the girls died along the way and they were thrown away but it was wrong information,” said Bukar
Meanwhile, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) has expressed anger at the way the federal government and security agencies have handled the Dapchi kidnap saga.
Secretary general of the group, Dr Abubakar Khalid-Ailyu, said in a statement in Kaduna on Thursday that the abduction of the girls as the “most potent action to frustrate the girl-child education,” stressing that before now, a serious government would have sanctioned those implicated in the abduction.
“No parent now is comfortable, especially in the North-East, to allow his daughter to go to such callously unprotected schools; and the North is the loser,” said JNI.
The group warned that government must not spare anyone found culpable in the abduction of the Dapchi girls.
It blamed the lapses on the government and security operatives, saying, “There is apparent lack of synergy between security operatives in Yobe State, or there is active connivance with the insurgents, especially if reports of media altercations between the army and the police are anything to go by.”
The group wondered why the abduction happened months before the 2019 general elections, saying it was a replica of the Chibok girls’ abduction of 2014.
The group said, “Are there orchestrated plans somewhere to make a case for more security votes?”
Meanwhile, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has commended the House of Representatives for setting up an ad hoc committee to investigate the abduction of the students.
The party’s national publicity secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan said in a statement in Abuja that the investigation was necessary in view of speculations of conspiracy theory, conflicting reports and disagreement among government officials and agencies on the matter.
He said the party took cognisance of the fact that the House of Representatives shares the view that there could have been a deliberate design to hide the facts of the matter, which underpins the demand by Nigerians to know the truth.
Ologbodiyan urged the legislators not to lose sight of the submission from Lawan, which he claimed collaborated the claims by the Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Geidam, that the abduction was preceded by the withdrawal of troops guarding the area.
“Nigerians are eagerly looking up to the national assembly for credible findings. This is more so as Nigerians have lost faith in the investigative committee set up by the federal government on this matter as reports from various other committees set up by this administration on important national issues have never been implemented by the government,” said Ologbodiyan.
