NANS decries Dapchi girls abduction, says Nigerian students are scapegoats of insurgency

- The National Association of Nigerian Students (NAN), has condemned the abduction of 105 female students

- The association described the victims of the incident as scapegoats

- They vowed to resist further attacks on Nigerian students nationwide

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NAN), has condemned the abduction of 105 female students of Government Science Technical School, Dapchi, Yobe state, describing the victims as scapegoats.

The organisation also vowed to resist every attempt to make students scapegoats,warning that the Dapchi abduction saga "should not be a cover up" on the long awaited return of the remaining female students of Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state, who were abducted four years ago by Book Haram.

The president of NANS, Chinonso Obasi, made this known in a statement sent to NAIJ.com on Monday, February 27.

Dapchi kidnap: We’ll resist further attacks on students - NANS

Obasi called on security agencies to ensure the release of the girls on time. Photo credit: NAN

He challenged the security agencies to team up and ensure the rescue of the girls, adding that NANS would join in efforts at seeing to the safe return of the Dapchi girls.

The association expressed surprise why the girls should be made scapegoats of total neglect of the education sector by successive governments.

Part of the statement read: “We condemn this act of abduction of innocent Nigerian students who, in their quest for the acquisition of knowledge for self and national development, are daily threatened by insurgents.

“We are pained by the near total neglect of the education sector by successive governments at all levels leading to these unbearable terrorism. It is unfortunate, barbaric and wicked of insurgents to resort to abduction of students who have no hand in the sorry state we all have found ourselves as a people and nation.

“Much as we appreciate military onslaughts against insurgency in the northeast, we feel the sense of urgency to resist attempts at making the students scapegoats.

“We have consistently been advocating, protesting and even persuading governments at all levels to reverse, with alacrity, the worsening conditions of our schools and take the welfare of the future leaders paramount as a deliberate measure to safeguard our nation from disastrous consequences.

“We unreservedly call on all security forces to join efforts at rescuing the abducted Dapchi girls in Yobe. Every second that passes with the girls in the hands of the terrorists is an unfathomable torture on Nigerians.

“Let everyone be informed; NANS is hereby declaring its intention to join efforts at seeing to the safe return of the Dapchi girls.

“We join the parents of the abducted school girls in prayers and urge the federal and Yobe state government and all men of good conscience to rise up in defence of Nigerian students.

“The Yobe state abduction should not be a cover up on the long awaited Chibok girls.”

Meanwhile, a recent media report suggests that nearly half the girls abducted from their school in Yobe state have been ferried across the border into Niger Republic.

According to the report, the girls were split into two groups; one was left in an enclave in northern Borno state and the other taken to a village in Niger Republic.

Sources quoted in the report say the girls were abducted by the Musab Albarnawi faction of Boko Haram which is loyal to the Islamic State of West Africa.

The girls were seized from Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on Monday, February 19.

Efforts to rescue them by the Nigerian military has not been successful as at the time of this report.

Survivors of Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV