Dapchi Abduction: Escapees Vow Never To School Again, Recount Incident

Some of the girls who escaped abduction

Some of the students who narrowly escaped abduction by Boko Haram insurgents during the attack on Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, have said they would not return to school.

Some of the girls told TheCable, as they arrived school to clear their personal belongings.

One of the students, Mariam Mohammed Miko, 15, said she was no longer returning to school, though she wanted to be a health technologist to be able to help her community.

Also, Amina Abubakar Mohamadu, 15, said though she would not quit schooling totally, she won’t return to her present school again.

She said, “I can’t go back to that school because the time they came, they told us that they are coming again. They (Boko Haram) said this is the first time they are in that town, that they didn’t know there is school in that area, that if they knew, they would have done more than that. So now, as I know they are coming back, I cannot go back there.

In the same vein, Fatima Mohammed Bilau, 15, said she had given up on education.

However, Yagana Mustapha, 14, said she would go back to school, only if government provides adequate security.

Speaking on her fellow students that ran into the vehicle belonging to the insurgents, Yagana said, “They did not know they were not soldiers. They thought they will help them. That was why they entered the car. Some of them were crying and shouting.”

“I am happy to escape, but I feel sad for my friends and my wish for them is to come back,” Yagana added.

Another lucky student who escaped abduction, Ajara Lawal, a 14-year-old SS2 student said at the school hostel that she came to pick some of her belongings.

Recounting the incident, she said, “We heard gunshots. We were in the mosque. At first, we thought it was an explosion from the transformer. But the shooting continued, so all of us left the mosque and moved towards the school gate.

“When we got to the gate, we saw some people in soldiers’ uniform, but they didn’t look like soldiers, and then we ran back. Our principal was crying, she told us we were not safe that we should run towards the fence and run away.”

Amina Abubakar Mohamadu, a 16-year-old, SS2 student, who has now returned to her father’s house in Damaturu, said she just had her dinner when the shootings started, adding that ‘’we all ran out, but the principal told us to start running, that we are not safe.”

Yagana Mustapha, in her account, said she was one of the girls at the mosque when they heard the gunshots.

“We ran to the gate. Then they (Boko Haram) lied, saying Boko Haram was attacking the village. ‘Come, come, I want to help you,’’ she explained.

The girls, also revealed how they managed to escape from being abducted.

Ajara said, “They were wearing soldiers’ uniforms and they said ‘Come, come, we are here to rescue you.’ I even stepped my leg into the car, but my elder sister called and said, ‘can’t you see that Allahu Akbar is written on their car,’ that was how I ran out.’’

“They deceived us. They came with three vans in army colours and they had army uniform, but they didn’t have army boots, that is how some of us identified them – through the slippers and their military trouser which did not touch the ground — three-quarter length,” Amina recounted.

Yagana added, “They wore soldiers uniform. I saw their car. They wrote Allahu Akbar on it. That is why I did not run into it.”

Sadia Mohammed Sanni, in SS2, said, “Immediately the incident started, we started running. Our teachers helped us to cross the fence. I was raised to scale over the fence and ran to a neighbour’s house.’’

Naija News gathered that the distance the girls must have covered to scale over the school fence cannot be less than five kilometres, considering the huge landmass of the school.

Devastated by the experience, Amina said her father, a civil servant in Damaturu, said in the past one week, she often jerks in her sleep.

“I slept in the bush that night. One of my friends was bitten by a snake. Some ran into houses. The next day, the local government chairman of Babangida and Dapchi came to see us and brought some of us back to our parents,” she recalled.

The girls said a teacher had a miscarriage as a result of the rush, while another had a fracture.