The Federal Government has directed the police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) authorities in Yobe State to immediately deploy their personnel to all the schools in the state.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, who announced this on during a press briefing in Yobe on Sunday said the directive was to ensure the security and safety of students and their staffers in the state.
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The government gave the order on week after suspected Boko Haram terrorists invaded the Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi in Bursari Local Government Area of the state.
While varying figures of the abducted girls emerged, the incident triggered reactions from individuals and groups across the country.
Leading a Federal Government delegation to the state, Mr Mohammed confirmed that 110 schoolgirls were missing after the invasion of the school by suspected terrorists on Monday, February 19.
He announced the figure after a meeting between the delegation and representatives of key stakeholders, including the state government, the college, the parents, security agencies and Bursari Local Government.
The minister said, based on the briefings from the Principal of the College, Ms Adama Abdulkarim, and the state Commissioner for Education, Mr Mohammed Lami, 906 students – out of whom 110 have not been accounted for – were in the school on the day of the attack.
He disclosed that the Federal Government has stepped up efforts to rescue the girls and return them safely to their parents, saying the security agencies are working on many leads regarding the whereabouts of the girls.
“This is the second time in four days that a Federal Government delegation would visit Yobe State since the unfortunate incident,” Mohammed said in a statement by his media aide Segun Adeyemi.
“This is a measure of the seriousness with which we are addressing the issue. The security forces are leaving no stone unturned in their search for the girls.
”We are back here in Yobe as part of efforts to provide some succour to the parents of the girls; to let them know that they are not alone and also to reassure them that we will not rest until we have found the girls. We will carry the parents along on the efforts we are making,” he added.
On his part, the Minister of Interior, Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Dambazau (retired) said the delegation embarked on the trip in order to get the facts right, “so that the approach to the solution can be correct”.
“We must get back the girls and also ensure that this does not happen again,” he said.
The Federal Government delegation held an enlarged meeting that was attended by the state governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, as well as members of the state cabinet, the principal and vice principal of the school, representatives of the parents of the missing girls and security agencies, among others.
