Nigerians Await Rescue Of 110 Schoolgirls As Airforce Intensifies Search

As search for the missing schoolgirls intensifies, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has deployed additional air assets to the north-east.

Olatokunbo Adesanya, NAF director of public relations and information, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

The development comes after the Federal Government delegation to Yobe State confirmed that 110 students of Government Girls’ Science Technical College in Dapchi, Borno state, are unaccounted for.

The girls are reportedly missing after Boko Haram insurgents invaded the school premises last week.

“Out of the total register of 906 students in school that day, 110 students are unaccounted,” Alhaji Lai Mohammed, minister of information, disclosed this to newsmen in Damaturu on Sunday.

The minister made the disclosure after a closed-door meeting between a federal government delegation, Yobe government, security agencies, community leaders and parents of the missing schoolgirls.

Mohammed said far reaching decisions were reached among which included the deployment of police and Civil Defence Corps to all schools.

But on their part, the NAF had also deployed additional assets including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms and helicopters, as part of renewed efforts to locate the girls.

“Although these search operations were conducted in a covert manner, for obvious reasons, the efforts did not yield the desired results,” Adesanya said in a statement on Sunday.

“Accordingly, the chief of the air staff (CAS), Sadique Abubakar, directed the immediate deployment of additional air assets and NAF personnel to the north-east with the sole mission of conducting day and night searches for the missing girls.

“It is noteworthy that the renewed efforts at locating the girls are being conducted in close liaison with other surface security forces.

“While the NAF will spare no efforts at possibly locating the girls via its air operations, it also seizes this opportunity to call on anyone, especially the locals, who might have any information that could lead to the location of the girls to bring such information forward to NAF authorities or other relevant security agencies.”