No fewer than 100 female students of the Government Girls
Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, were on Monday night abducted by
members of the outlawed militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
The incident took place less than 15 hours after four suicide bombers
detonated Improvised Explosive Devices, killing 89 people in a busy motor park
in Nyanya, a satellite community bordering the Federal Capital Territory and
Nasarawa State.
Just before the news of the abduction spread on Tuesday, there was
pandemonium at the National Assembly as a bomb scare forced lawmakers and
workers to hurriedly close their offices.
Parents told the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation that
the girls, who are Senior Secondary Schools Examination candidates, were woken
up at about 10pm in their hostel by the insurgents and ordered into
four waiting lorries.
A pupil, who did not wish to be named, was quoted as saying that she
managed to escape after seeing some of her classmates jump
out of the back of one of the lorries.
The insurgents also killed an undisclosed number of people in the village,
carted away food items and burnt some houses as well as vehicles.
It was learnt that some members of the special military force were among
those killed by the terrorists, who were said to have had a field day.
A resident, Amos Ahmadu, said many people fled into nearby bushes while
others managed to get to Damboa.
When contacted, the Borno state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Lawan Tanko,
said he had sent his men to Chibok.
He however said he could not volunteer any further details for now.
