Father’s plea to find abducted daughter

MAIDUGURI. - The father of a 14-year-old girl who is among 110 believed to have been abducted by Boko Haram has pleaded with the Nigerian government to act quickly.

“We don’t want these girls to stay long with those militants. Anything can happen to them,” Kachalla Bukar told the BBC.

Jihadists stormed the school in the town of Dapchi in the north-eastern Yobe state on 19 February.

The attack has revived memories of the Chibok schoolgirl abduction in 2014.

President Muhammadu Buhari said it was a “national disaster” and apologised to the girls’ families.

Bukar says his wife cannot stop crying and he cannot sleep since their “brilliant” daughter Aisha disappeared.

“We are begging the government to control the situation quickly.”

Nigeria has deployed extra troops and planes to search for the schoolgirls.

“We want to assure Nigerians that no stone will be left unturned in our determination to rescue these girls,” Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed told the BBC.

The school is to remain closed for the time being, an official told news agency AFP. Parents had already told

the BBC they were not prepared to let their daughters return until better security measures were in place.

Anger has been growing among the girls’ parents amid reports that soldiers had been withdrawn from key

checkpoints in Dapchi last month.

Dapchi, which is about 275km north-west of Chibok, came under attack last Monday, causing students and teachers from the Government Girls Science and Technical College

to flee into the surrounding bush.

Residents say that Nigeria’s security forces, backed by military jets, later repelled the attack.

Authorities initially denied the students had been kidnapped, saying they were hiding from their attackers.

But they later admitted that 110 girls were missing after the attack.

Boko Haram militants have been fighting a long insurgency in the country’s north in their quest for an Islamic state in the region.

Nearly four years ago they abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, leading to a worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign. The location of more than 100 of those girls is still unknown.

The conflict is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, and led to the abduction of thousands.

Meanwhile, President Buhari yesterday vowed to ensure the release of all those held captive by Boko Haram insurgents.

President Buhari said his government would go to any length in ensuring the safe return of Nigerians abducted by the insurgent group.

He made the declaration while receiving three lecturers of the University of Maiduguri, UNIMAID, and 10 women who recently regained freedom from the terrorists.

In a tweet posted on his official Twitter handle, the President assured that no victim will be left in the “hands of terrorists.”

He wrote: “I can’t fully express the joy I felt I this afternoon, as I received our citizens recently released from Boko Haram captivity - fathers, mothers, sons, daughters.

“We will go to any length to ensure that no one is left behind in the hands of terrorists. Every Nigerian life matters!” - BBC/Daily Post Nigeria.