Dapchi school attack, a national disaster —Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday described reported abduction of girls from the Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State as a national disaster, assuring the families of students , that no effort will be spared to bring succour to them.

A statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, quoted the president as saying: “When I received the devastating news of the attack on the school and the fact that the local authorities could not account for all the students, I immediately dispatched a high-level delegation on a fact-finding visit to the town.

“I also instructed the security agencies to deploy in full and not spare any effort to ensure that all the girls are returned safely, and the attackers arrested and made to face justice.

“The entire country stands as one with the girls’ families, the government and the people of Yobe State. This is a national disaster. We are sorry that this could have happened and share your pain. We pray that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return your missing family members.

“Our government is sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found.”

However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told Nigerians to hold President Muhammadu Buhari-led Presidency directly responsible for the abduction of schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe state “and several other atrocities committed by insurgents against citizens, particularly in the northern part of the country.”

In a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, its National Publicity Secretary in Abuja on Friday, the party said the

Buhari Presidency had put Nigerians at risk by deceiving the people and issuing false performance indices suggesting that insurgents have been completely routed out, “a situation which made our unsuspecting citizens trust a lie and dropped their guards in the face of real threats and danger.”

The leading opposition party added: “Without doubt, if the incompetent All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government had not dished out lies to the people in a bid to score cheap political points for its ill-lucked 2019 re-election bid, more precautionary measures would have been adopted by the affected communities to ensure adequate protection.

“While Nigerians are appalled by APC’s recourse to false indices in critical sectors, it is however, to say the least, an inexcusable height of wickedness to give a vulnerable people a false assurance of security when they are actually in danger.”

Furthermore, the PDP decried as iniquitous, the efforts by APC-controlled federal authorities to suppress information on the abduction, leading to conflicting reports and frustrating of rescue mission, just because they seek to hide the failures of the presidency in ensuring the safety of Nigerians, particularly in the north.

“We were shocked that in their proclivity to deceive, the authorities earlier informed Nigerians that some of the girls have been recovered only for the news to turn out to be false,” the party declared.

It observed that while President Buhari had not uttered any word of assurance, government’s visiting team headed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed only had a whistle stop at the Dapchi school and made no effort to interface or even commiserate with community leaders and parents of the abducted girls, while completely shutting out the media.

“This only further confirms APC’s insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians,” it said, adding: “It is more irking that the President and Commander-in-Chief will publicly provide a day an asymmetry war will come to an end as if acts of insurgency are fought like a conventional warfare.

“It is painful that Nigerians are faced today with a government that has been heavy on propaganda and issuing of false statistics, while playing down on several atrocities committed against defenseless citizens.

“Under the PDP, Nigerians were never told lies on the true situation of the state of affairs in all sectors, particularly security.

“The PDP-led government constantly briefed Nigerians and carried all stakeholders along in our concerted effort in securing lives and property in our nation.

“Nigerians and indeed the world must hold the Buhari Presidency and the APC-led Federal Government directly responsible for the abduction of these defenseless schoolgirls as well as the killings in our country today.”

The statement said the PDP stands with the parents of the abducted girls at this moment of their harrowing pains and prayed for their speedy return.

It implored the nation’s security forces to insulate themselves from APC propaganda, take very decisive professional steps to recover our girls and end the killings in our country.