by ‘Jola Sotubo

An insight might have been given into why the teachers at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno haven’t been able to explain the events of April 14 when over 200 girls were kidnapped from the school.

A parent to one of the missing girls has said that his daughter told him that the students had been locked up in the school by their teachers who subsequently fled and left them behind.

Watila Simon said that he had called his daughter, Godiya immediately he heard of the attack and she told him that all the teachers had left them behind.

ThisDay reports:

He said: “I called my daughter in the school, asking, ‘Godiya where are you?’ She told me she was in the hostel. Then I said but they are attacking the town and they have started burning houses and you are still in the school, and she said yes.

“I asked, ‘Are you together with soldiers?’ She said no, and I asked about the police, and she said they were not with them, but that they were safe in the school.”

He revealed that when he spoke with Godiya, the insurgents were still attacking the town and had not gone to the school.

“She equally told me that all the teachers had already left and there was no elderly person with them,” he said. Simon said it was on the realisation that there was no one guarding the school that he told his daughter to take to her heels if the opportunity arose.

“I told her once the insurgents finished with the people in the town, they would turn to the school and she should run.

“When the sound of gunshots started in the town, the teachers were still with them but they later took to their heels, locked them in and ran away,” he maintained, adding that “there are teachers’ quarters within the school premises where some teachers hid at the time of the attack”.

“She even told me that the teachers instructed them to stay put and not to run; then one of the teachers locked the gate so there was no way for them to escape.

“As I expected, when Boko Haram finished with the town, they came for the girls at the school. They told the girls to come with them, assuring them that they were soldiers and the girls believed them because they were in military uniforms. They were told that they would be protected from the insurgents who were attacking the town and would be safe.

“The girls believed and complied. They were then asked to bring all their mobile phones and it was then that they asked them to show them where the government property was sited in the school and they picked out some of the girls to show them.

“I knew that my daughter was in trouble immediately I called her and she was no longer picking her calls. This was further confirmed the next day when I called the people in town and they told me all our daughters had been carried away,” he said.

On his reunion with his daughter, he said: “I am happy and I prayed to God before her arrival. Since she got back, I have been having night vigils with members of my family.”

Narrating how she escaped from her abductors, Godiya informed THISDAY and ARISE that she and three other girls asked for permission to have a bathroom break and seized the opportunity to flee.

She revealed that after running for a distance, they were subsequently assisted by a Fulani herdsman. She said before her escape, the insurgents had threatened to kill them and were not properly fed during her short time in captivity.