The minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has described the abduction of schoolgirls from Government Girls Science Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, as a strategy by insurgents to embarrass President Muhammadu Buhari.
Mohammed said there is no denial that the power of the insurgents has completely gone down, but needed to be relevant, hence, the latest abduction. He added that the dreaded group has been completely chased out of their stronghold in Sambisa by the Nigerian army.
The minister disclosed this when a federal government delegation visited Dapchi on Thursday to assess the situation. But he didn’t put a figure on the number of girls who are missing.
Meanwhile, Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Geidam, said none of the schoolgirls missing from Government Girls Science Technical College in Dapchi has been rescued. The governor made this clear when he visited and urged parents of the girls to pray for their release.
In the meantime, the Yobe state government has apologised for misinforming the public when it announced that some of the girls had been rescued. It says it got the information from a security agency.
The messages before now have been uncoordinated: from the state saying no student was taken, to later admitting students were kidnapped and some rescued.