Boko Haram attacks another girls’ college in Nigeria, Buhari asks ministers to investigate

ABUJA, Feb. 23– Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday
directed three members of his cabinet to investigate an attack by terror
group Boko Haram on an all-girl college earlier this week, a government
spokesperson said.

Minister of Defense Mansur Dan-Ali, Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama and
Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed have been asked to visit
Dapchi village in the northeastern state of Yobe to get first-hand
information on the attack on the Government Girls’ Technical College on
Monday, Mohammed told reporters here. The minister said Buhari also
directed military and other security agencies to take immediate control of
the college and rescue the missing students. “Nigerians will be constantly
briefed on developments,” he said. Hours before the news broke, Buhari
said he had “directed the military and police to mobilize immediately,”
adding that he shared the anguish of the parents and guardians of the girls
missing since the attack.

According to officials, at least 46 students are still unaccounted for.
Other reports put the figure at 13. Over 94 students were missing at first.
But the state government said 28 returned late Tuesday and 20 more came
back early Wednesday. Police and state officials said there was no evidence
that the girls had been abducted but the Yobe government later said in a
statement that the military had rescued some of the students from the Boko
Haram. A local teacher said as Boko Haram outlaws went into students’
dormitories, many of the girls jumped over the fence and escaped into the
bushes. Some of the girls who had returned told the school authorities that
they were rescued by villagers from the bushes. About four years ago, 276
girls were abducted by the Boko Haram from the Girls’ Secondary School in
Chibok town in Yobe’s neighboring Borno State. Only 107 of the Chibok girls
have been rescued or returned amid ongoing government negotiation with Boko
Haram.The outlawed group has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamic
state in northeastern Nigeria. They have killed some 20,000 people and
displaced millions. – XINHUA