Hundreds of girls have refused to return to their school in northeast Nigeria because of security fears following a mass kidnapping by Boko Haram jihadists, parents and teachers said today.
Jihadists stormed the Government Girls Technical College in Dapchi on February 19, seizing 111 schoolgirls in a carbon copy of the abduction in Chibok in 2014 that caused global outrage.
All but six of the Dapchi girls were returned to the school just over a month later. Five died in captivity while the only Christian among them is still being held. The school re-opened on April 30 but one teacher, who asked not to be identified for fear of official sanctions, said most pupils have stayed away.
"We have a total student population of 989, and out of that number only 314 have resumed after we reopened. Of the 314 that returned, 299 are writing their final examinations and will be leaving school in July," he said.
"So, technically, we can say only 15 students have resumed, who will be continuing their education here." Bashir Manzo, who headed the abducted girls' parents association, said children were being kept at home because of a lack of security personnel.
"There are only a handful of soldiers and vigilantes guarding the school, not more than 25 in all, a number grossly inadequate to protect our daughters," he told AFP.
"We believe even the 15 girls that returned will go back home once their seniors finish their examinations and leave." The education commissioner for Yobe state, Mohammed Lamin, angrily dismissed parents' concerns and said "everything humanly possible" had been done to make the school safe.
"We deployed soldiers, police, civil defence paramilitary and vigilantes to the school providing security 24 hours," he said.
"How can they say security is inadequate? Do they have such level of security in their homes?"
"This leaves many parents with no option but to marry off their daughters because they have no means of taking them to schools outside the state," he said