Thirty-four days after the
fundamentalist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, abducted over 200 schoolgirls from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, it has threatened to kidnap more pupils.
The United States of America,
France, Britain, Israel and
Canada are among the foreign
countries that have pledged to help Nigeria find the schoolgirls that were kidnapped by Boko Haram on April 14.
The pupils were kidnapped in the night and their hostels were burnt. However, while Boko
Haram transported them in trucks to its Sambisa Forest stronghold, over 50 of the schoolgirls escaped from the sect.
There have been reports that some of the girls have been seen being moved out of Nigeria.
Other reports have said the girls were seen in the northern parts of the Central African
Republic where an Islamic militia, Seleka, holds sway.
Last week, the leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau, in a video asked for the release of Boko Haram detainees in exchange for the pupils.
The Federal Government turned down the request.
On Saturday, the Principal of Government College, Makurdi, Mr. Godfrey Ugudu, revealed that the school had received letters from Boko Haram threatening to attack the school.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ugudu, who announced this at a news conference in Makurdi, added that the school received two letters which had the same content on May 14.
“It is true that we saw two letters informing us of the intention of the sect to invade our school on Friday or Monday by Boko Haram.
“The letters were dated May 14, 2014. The sect stated that they were coming on either of the two days to abduct our boys whom they would marry to the secondary school girls abducted in Chibok.”
Adopted Chibok Schoolgirls
The school principal added that in the letter, Boko Haram also threatened to arrest another nearby school.
“In the letter, we were asked to inform the Mount Saint Gabriel Secondary School opposite us to also get prepared as they promised to invade the school too.
“We immediately alerted the police and the commissioner for education. A report has been made to the governor on the issue.
“The two letters, which were written in pidgin English, were sighted inside one of the
classrooms and the second one was slipped into the staff room,” he said.
The principal commended the government and security operatives in the state for their prompt response to the issue.
He said measures had been put in place to ensure the safety of the school children, adding that he had informed the Principal of Mount Saint Gabriel.
NAN reports that about 500 out of about 700 students of the college are living in the school
while Mount Saint Gabriel is purely a boarding school.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Dan Ezeala, confirmed the report adding that police were on top of the situation.
The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, when contacted said he asked our correspondent to speak to the police and the school authorities.
“I think you should talk to the police and the schools. The security agencies are in the states are
supposed to be operating,” he said.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, could not be reached for comments as calls
made to his phone failed to connect. A text message sent to his phone was not responded to as of the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, the drones and other surveillance aircraft deployed by the US government to search
for the over 200 abducted pupils have yet to locate them.
While promising to intensify efforts to find the schoolgirls, US Defence Secretary, Chuk Hagel, told the Cable Network News, that the pupils had not been seen.
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