By Sadiq Abubakar
Four out of the 223 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram at Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno state, have re-united with their parents.
The state Commissioner for Education, Musa Inuwa Kubo, informed the Presidential Fact-Finding Committee on the Chibok attack this when he made a presentation in Maiduguri last week.
Kubo, who appeared before the committee on Friday at the committee’s sitting, said the four girls were discovered after Governor Kashim Shettima directed the Ministry of Education to open data pages for families of all the girls that included names and pictures of the girls, class, age, as well as the pictures of parents.
It was during the data capturing and visits to parents that it was discovered that four girls who were amongst those declared missing had re-united with their parents, but the parents had failed to inform the school authorities.
The commissioner was said to have been furious with the parents for keeping the government in the dark.
The four girls were believed to be amongst those that escaped to the bush and lost direction during the attack and abduction.
The commissioner told the committee that with the discovery of the four girls, a total of 219 girls were still missing.
He informed the committee that after the April 14, 2014 attack on the school, the state government made a series of announcements, urging parents whose daughters might have run home to bring them back to the government to take record and ascertain the number of the missing girls.
Many parents brought back their kids, while others who escaped from captivity were also re-united with the school.
A total of 276 girls were initially said to have been kidnapped based on reports by the Borno state Police Commissioner and the State Director of the SSS. Of this, 53 were found and 228 were missing.
However, with the four girls found, the number of those missing stands at 219 and those found stands at 57.
