Parents of the dapchi missing school girls are disputing the federal government released figures on the number of girls that are missing after suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked their community on Monday, February 19, 2018.
Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, on Sunday, February 25, 2018, in Damaturu, said the government will commence a search for 110 schoolgirls out of 906 student population.
Lai Mohammed who spoke with journalists after a closed-door meeting with members of Yobe State community and security agencies in Damaturu on Sunday, February 25, 2018. He said parents of the missing schoolgirls also attended the meeting.
“There was no doubt that the insurgents were in Dapchi and as at today, we cannot account for 110 girls”, said the information minister.
“Because the total register of the students that came to school that day was 906 but as at today, about 110 of them cannot be accounted for and that is the situation.”
These claims were, however, disputed by the parent’s forum, which denied knowledge of the minister’s visit as well as the figures he quoted.
Bashir Manzo, the forum’s chairman, who said he was not aware of the meeting in Damaturu.
He also denied knowledge of the new figure announced by the minister in Damaturu.
“I am not aware of the meeting in Damaturu”, he said.
“No one informed us here in Dapchi that a meeting would hold. And as far as our record here is concerned, we still have 105, but if they have additional names to what we had first established, fine and good. We are happy no one is saying the figure is less than what we’ve had.”
Since the attack on Dapchi and the subsequent abduction of the schoolgirls, there has been conflicting figures being quoted by the by government. The parents of the girls were the first to release the 105 figure which appears to be the most credible information.
The parents were able to achieve this by opening a register in which only genuine parents of the girls are allowed to give the names and details of their missing daughters.
Meanwhile, the federal government did not explain how it arrived at its own summation.
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