The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Thursday said the Nigerian government is not sure of the true situation of the reported abduction of students of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi on Monday.
The minister, who was at Yobe state for a fact-finding mission, said government needed more time to assess the situation around the community where the schoolgirls were reportedly kidnapped.
Mr Mohammed was amongst the three ministers that President Muhammadu Buhari asked on Wednesday to embark on an immediate fact-finding mission to the state.
“On the issue of the number of missing girls, we cannot give what we are not sure of, until we hear from their parents, we cannot say this is the number,” Mr Mohammed.
However, in the early hours of today, Thursday, parents and guardians of the missing schoolgirls were in tears when the state governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, visited them without saying a word on the whereabouts of the girls.
Addressing the parents at the District Head’s palace in Dapchi on Thursday, the governor urged the parents to remain faithful as security operatives were still searching for the girls.
He said “soldiers have been pursuing the insurgents, although they receive information that the Boko Haram insurgents had passed some areas, but the communities in the areas said they did not spot the girls along with the insurgents.”
He assured that government and security operatives would not rest on their oars until the missing girls were accounted for.
The waiting parents wept profusely as the earlier news that the girls were rescued turned out to be false.
The Yobe Government on Wednesday issued a statement claiming that some of the missing girls had been rescued.
