A day after PREMIUM TIMES reported the Lassa Ward councillor’s claim that 35 students remained missing following Monday’s attack on Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, in the Askira/Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, further investigations by this newspaper have revealed that at least 36 students remain unaccounted for as of Tuesday evening. PREMIUM TIMES confirmed the figure through interviews with parents and a community-generated register.
The community-generated register lists the names, classes, sex, and contact details of the 36 missing students. Our reporter contacted several parents and relatives whose details appeared on the document, and the findings were subsequently corroborated by the Borno State Government, which confirmed the figure after a stakeholders’ meeting in Lassa.
What PREMIUM TIMES found
Parents and relatives interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES stated that their children had not returned home. “No, my child is yet to be released because out of the seven that were released yesterday, she wasn’t among them,” said Mr Simon, father of Partsi Simon, an SS2 student.
Mr Simon added that neither security agencies nor the abductors had contacted the family since the attack. He confirmed that his daughter was not among the candidates sitting the National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations: “She is in SS2, sir, not writing NECO.”
