Forty-six girls still missing after fresh Boko Haram attacks

Forty six girls out of 94 earlier declared missing when Boko Haram attacked the Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi on Monday are still missing, the Yobe state government has said.

On Wednesday, the government said 48 of the 94 students who were declared missing after Monday’s Boko Haram attack, have returned while 46 are still unaccounted for.

Some of the students fled after insurgents invaded the school.

One of the teachers in the school was quoted to have said a headcount was taken after the attack.

“After the roll call, 610 out the total number of 704 students have returned. We are still searching for the remaining 94 students,” he was quoted to have said.

“We cannot say [if they have been abducted], because the insurgents went into the students’ hostel, and many of these students scaled the fence and escaped into the bushes.”

But Mohammed Lamin, the state commissioner of education, disclosed that while 28 of the missing students returned on Tuesday night, 20 more returned on Wednesday morning.

“This has brought down the 94 missing students realized at the yesterday headcount to 48 this morning,” he said.

“We are still hopeful that more are returning soon.”

Most of the students were said to have been rescued by villagers in bushes around Dapchi.

There has been tension in the area amid speculations that some of the students might have been abducted by the insurgents.

Abdumaliki Sunmonu, Yobe police commissioner, had said the police could not establish if there was a case of abduction.

Meanwhile, parents have started evacuating their wards from school to forestall what happened years back in Chibok where over 280 female students were abducted.