How Born Governor Caused the Kidnapped of Chibok Schoolgirls

How Borno Governor caused kidnap of Chibok
schoolgirls – WAEC
Talatu Usman - 11 hours ago
NATIONAL, NEWS
“The Borno state government also refused to
relocate the students from Chibok to safer places
like Maiduguri.”
The kidnap of over 250 schoolgirls in Chibok may
not have occurred if the Borno State Government
had heeded the advice of an examination body,
fresh facts have emerged.
Aware of the poor security situation in Borno and
worried about the safety of students, the West
African Examination Council, WAEC, declined to
conduct its Senior School Certificate Examination
in unsafe parts of Borno, including Chibok.
But that was until the state governor, Kashim
Shettima, assured of adequate security measures,
an official has said.
The head of WAEC’s National Office in Nigeria,
Charles Eguridu, stated this on Friday night in
Abuja while answering questions from several
women including First Lady Patience Jonathan,
wives of state governors, female legislators at
federal and state levels, and leaders of various
women organizations.
The Borno State Commissioner of Women Affairs,
Inna Galadima, stood in for the wife of the Borno
Governor, Nana Shettima.
The event was organised by Mrs. Jonathan at the
First Lady’s conference room, Presidential Villa,
Abuja.
Mr. Eguridu said WAEC was initially reluctant to
conduct its examination in Chibok and other
troubled areas of the north-east because of the
security challenges but had to buckle when Mr.
Shettima assured the Council, in writing, that
adequate security would be provided.
“Following the previous experience, we were afraid
to go to the North-East this year, yet we risked it
and asked for extra security through the Minister of
Education, Nyesom Wike,” the official said. “We
also asked the various state governments to
relocate all the centres to the state capitals where
there would be adequate security.”
“The three governors did not respond to our
request but instead said they had made adequate
security arrangements. The Borno state
government also refused to relocate the students
from Chibok to safer places like Maiduguri,” Mr.
Eguridu told the women on Friday.
The WAEC official reportedly tendered the letters
written to the governors of Adamawa, Borno, and
Yobe to prove his claim.
He also told the women that another factor that
influenced WAEC’s decision to ask that all centres
be moved to the state capitals was the death of
three of its staff while conducting a similar
examination in a school along the Yola-Maiduguri
road, last year.
Schools in Borno had been shut following the
various attacks by the extremist Boko Haram sect.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the state
government, in a bid to ensure its students do not
miss the SSCE examinations, asked final year
secondary school students to resume studies.
The Borno governor, who initially declined
transferring the final year students from centres in
remote areas like Chibok to the state capital, finally
agreed to do so after the kidnap, Mr. Eguridu said.
“Borno state government only agreed to relocate
the remaining 189 pupils after the abduction of the
girls,” he said.
The Borno Government is yet to react to WAEC’s
claim. The Borno Education Commissioner, Musa
Inuwa Kubo, did not answer or return calls made to
his phone and was yet to reply to a text message
enquiry as at the time of publishing this report.
The actual student figure
The WAEC boss also provided what appears the
clearest clarification yet of the number of students
in the Chibok school before the April 14 kidnap.
“Overall, 530 students registered for WAEC at the
Chibok centre, 135 males and 395 girls,” the
official said.
Mr. Eguridu provided the bio data, including
photographs of all the 530 students that registered
at the Chibok centre.
The centre was the Government Secondary School,
Chibok, and was used as centre by both the
students of the school and those of smaller villages
in Chibok Local Government.
The actual number of girls still with the kidnappers
is yet to be ascertained, although the school, the
state government and the police all gave figures
above 200.
About 50 of the girls initially declared missing have
been reunited with their families with many of
those escaping from their abductors.
Although the school is a mixed school, boarding
facilities are only available for girls; which explains
why they were the only ones in the dormitory
when the suspected Boko Haram members arrived
on the night of April 14.
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