Parents and families of the 78 students and children abducted from two public schools in separate attacks by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State, have been agonising over the fate of their children still languishing in the captivity of terrorists 135 days after their abduction.
They said it has been over four traumatising days since their children went to school and never returned.
On the morning of Friday !5th May, terrorists on motorcycles invaded Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School of Askira-Uba Local Government Area in the southern part of Borno, where they abducted dozens of pupils.
Bormo State government and Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume who represents the Southern Borno in the Senate, put the total number of abductees at 42. These included 28 pupils taken from the primary School, four from the Junior Secondary School and 10 toddlers, aged 20 months to three years, kidnapped on playgrounds in nearby houses.
A month later, terrorists’ broke the serenity of Lassa, a small town some kilometres to the scene of the first incident in same Askira-Uba Local Government. They whisked away 36 students and a teacher from the Government Secondary School in the town, leaving the community members in sorrowful mood, parents and relations in agony, trauma and uncertainty of the fate of their children.
“We sent them to school hoping that one day, they will become better persons in the society, make their contributions and support their parents at old age but it appears all these dreams are gone. Boko Haram has carried them away,” Yohanna Musa Lassa, uncle to one of the kidnapped students, told Sunday Sun.
He revealed that his brother, whose son was among the 36 abducted by the terrorists on June 29 at Lassa Secondary School, has been experiencing depression since the incident occurred.
Under heavy rainfall that drenched their clothes and their faces, mothers, fathers and relatives gathered in Mussa recently, clutching photographs of their little ones, weeping openly, and chanting “Save our children.” It was an emotional moment for the community members as they gathered recently.
It was an event to pray and remember the sad incident of 15th May when Boko Haram struck and forcefully took away 42 pupils from Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School.
Residents said the terrorists had fired several shots into the air to scare people before breaking into the school premises, classrooms and playgrounds of homes near the school. They eventually took away children even as young as two years, put them on their motorcycles and rode back to the Sambisa Forest. Mussa sits on the edge of the forest which is Boko Haram former operational base.
“It was a sad day for us in Mussq,” Musa Chinda, whose four-year old daughter was also a victim of the mass abduction, disclosed in an interview with Saturday Sun.
He said the abduction and inability of the authorities to rescue the children four months after has dampened his hope on the survival of the abductees
He expressed concern over what he described as the silence of the Federal Government over the rescue of the children, lamenting that the government should have applied the tactics they applied in freeing the Oriire School abduction which occurred same day.
“The Federal Government has been silent about the rescue of our children and this worries us as parents directly affected,” he said. He appealed to President Tinubu to activate similar presidential order to rescue the children and save them from Boko Haram’s mission to cut down their destinies and life.
Chinda said the parents of the abducted children have been making passionate appeals to the government since the incident occurred. He begged the government to act before it is too late.
He said the younger ones among the abducted children may be at risk of diseases, including malnutrition and the absence of mothers’ care.
“About four of these children are still around two years. Some are just about three years. These children are too young and will need the card of their mothers,” he noted.
Mrs Saratu Buba, a relation to one of the Mussa parents believes divine intervention with military action will free the 78 abductees She urged Nigerians to join the community in prayers.
Borno Commissioner of Education, Science, Technology and Innovations, Lawan Abba Wakilbe had at a recent stakeholders’ forum on education decried attacks on schools and education institutions by terrorists and armed groups as inimical to the growth of education in the state.
Wakilbe, however, said the Borno State government is collaborating with the military and other security forces to ensure the rescue of the school children in terrorists’ bondage and also secure the school environment.
He informed that the state government, under the Safe Schools Initiative, closed and relocated the Mussa and Lassa schools after the May 15 and June 29 abductions,. However, it is uncertain if the government plans to reopen the effected schools soon as the Commissioner could not be reached on his mobile phone for comments.
Credit: The Sun