The unspeakable has happened again with the apparent abduction of over 100 female students of a Government Girls Science School in Yobe State, Northern Nigeria by the anti-western education terrorists Boko Haram.
Within hours of the attack on Monday February 19, our human rights coworkers reported to me in Washington that over 100 hundred schoolgirls were missing. However it took one week for the Government of Nigeria to formally announce that 110 girls were missing on Sunday February 25, 2018.
This is but one of myriads of missteps that have conjured up stupefying apparitions of the 4-year old Chibok schoolgirl mass abduction debacle.
Our forensic investigation of both these mass abductions reveal the following similarities reproduced here as a comparative analyses.
A. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CHIBOK V DAPCHI MASS ABDUCTION
(See attached chart A)
- Early Warning – Exam board warned State v DIA warned specific threat
- Military Defense – Soldiers present but retreated v Soldiers withdrawn completely
- Disguises – Terrorists disguised as army v Terrorists disguised as army with army trucks
- Teachers Response – abandoned students v Assisted students escape
- Principal – Absent v Absent
- Destruction – School looted and destroyed v No looting and destruction
- Students – abducted wholesale v partial abductions
- Lethal Force – minimal use of force Lethal v use of force against fleeing students
- Age of students -Youngest was 16 v As young as 12
- Rescues – Self-rescue /escapes v Escapes and teacher assistance
- Fatalities – None during abduction v Fatalities reported
- Treatment – Individually v School provided
B. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF POST ATTACK ACTION
(See Chart B Attached)
13. Govt response – didn’t deny abduction v denied abduction
14. Rescue – claimed military rescue v claimed military rescue
15. Reversal – reversed rescue claim v reversed rescue claim
16. Skepticism – doubted abduction v doubted abduction
17. Arrests – One relative detained v Three parents detained
18. Troops – Rapidly deployed v Rapidly deployed plus air assets
19. Parents – Upset at govt mishandling v stoned govt for mishandling
20. Names – provided by NGO v provided by govt
21. FGN team – team visited for an hour v visited for an hour
22. President – didn’t immediately respond v Responded faster
C. EVIDENCE OF COVER UP
After a one week investigation into the abductions involving numerous interviews with eyewitnesses and impacted persons, the following observations and findings were made:
- An eyewitness who met the terrorists indicated they intimated that they were not there to kill but to abduct the girls – meaning from day one, this was the terrorists’ objective and the government was misleading the public about this key fact
- Survivors indicated that government officials directed them not to say there had been abductions so as not to upset the parents of the missing girls – meaning from day 2, the government was intentionally misleading the public
- The military were mobilized to intercept the terrorists’ convoy but unfortunately they didn’t cross paths. It appears it may have been in anticipation of a rapid response and recovery that the govt precipitously announced a “rescue.”
- Parents were kept out of the school for hours while authorities tried to cover up the facts and girls were initially told they couldn’t leave until the missing girls were found
D. EVIDENCE OF AGGRAVATED NEGLIGENCE
- The pull out of troops from Dapchi is by far one of the biggest elements of negligence in this saga. This vacuum created the opportunity for Boko Haram to invade Trojan style as though they were the returning military.
- The operation of the school as a boarding only institution exposed the girls needlessly to risk. Parents interviewed said their children could comfortably attend school from home but being a “day student” was not an option. Had that been the case, by the time terrorists arrived after 6pm, students would have been home and unavailable to be abducted.
- Failure to provide safety facilities, upgraded security and crisis response protocols were also a factor. Survivors told us that on two occasions, teachers instructed them not to run. The latter instance, teachers asked them to wait by the mosque for a coordinated escape plan. Students who refused to wait at the most escaped while most who did were captured.
- Failure of the Nigerian government to effectively utilize donor funding for Safe School Initiatives to really make schools safe. Funds in excess of $12 million SSI monies have not be properly accounted for.
- Propaganda, hyperbole and exaggeration of military conquest of Boko Haram lulled the community and many into complacency and thinking that indeed the insurgency had been “technically defeated.” The government is guilty of believing its own hype.
- Further to above, such statements by the government also serve to provoke the terrorists to take further attacks with extreme prejudice to reestablish their lethality, mortality and capacity.
- Worse still, the cash flow generated by the ransoms for prior schoolgirls has engendered a cottage girl child abduction industry amidst the insurgency. While not gainsaying the imperative to pay for the release and return of over 100 Chibok girls previously, the payment of ransoms for the college professors and policewomen released recently after some months in captivity revealed to Boko Haram that they could still be paid for more recent abductees. The better negotiating position would have been to finish the Chibok releases first and foremost before embarking on newer cases. By this blunder, the government has unwittingly created a monster and enamored terrorist abductions.
- The schoolgirls were not allowed possession of cellphones in school. Unlike in Chibok where girls were able to call families to alert them, Dapchi girls were not allowed this facility. Accordingly they cannot call no be traced by this means. In the event that some girls escaped into the forest, they have no means of communication either.
- Total failure of leadership at all levels is evident. Given that the prior administration lost public goodwill and reelection in large part due to the infamous Chibok abductions, one would expect a reasonably minded government to avoid the same pitfall. However it appears that the President Buhari administration, led by a retired General no less, has managed to replicate virtually every single mistake of the prior administration and worse. With the benefit of hindsight and resources to avert just this scenario, General Buhari failed to prevent a similar catastrophe on the heels of which he rode to power. Far from a “national disaster,” this is an international disgrace under the heels of which he may be trodden out of office in upcoming elections less than a year away.
- Sadly, the children of many serving as educators, medics and responders to the crisis were also taken captive while their parents served their country.
E. RECOMMENDATIONS
- In addition to aerial search, manual community wide searches should be conducted in case of individual stragglers who escaped. The Chibok experience tells us that some girls spent at least a week in the forest trying to find their way back.
- The government must face reality and come to terms with the fact that Boko Haram is not a spent force. Accordingly it should desist from premature celebratory pronouncements and let its total victory speak for itself.
- The government must rethink its education strategy for northern Nigeria. Boarding schools should be replaced with day schools to minimize the risk of abductions.
- Schools should be adequately protected
- Students should have access to their phones
- The government needs to be truthful about facts known to it
- The government needs to focus on the release of the outstanding Chibok girls now nearing their 4th year of captivity
- The government needs to account for and effectively utilize Safe School Initiatives funding
- The government needs to develop an empathetic and humane response system to the families of the abducted
- The government must investigate the failure of intelligence that allowed this to happen after clear warnings and deal with this accordingly
11. The US, China, UK, Israel and other countries who pledged assistance in 2014 and failed have yet another opportunity to redeem themselves by helping bring back our girls. In particular the US should reconstitute and redeploy the FBI multidisciplinary team originally sent by President Obama to help find the Chibok girls in 2014
12. The international community, individuals who have taken a stand for justice on sexual harassment, school shootings etc should see this as an egregious extrapolation of same and join in a global movement #standforourschoolgirls #bbog2018
13. The government must work to systematically rebuild parental confidence in girl child education and public school safety in light of the crisis of credibility it now faces once effective safe school infrastructure is in place
14. The world at large needs to recognize and address the growing threat to school children and children in general. 2017 was a “nightmare year” for children caught in the crosshairs of conflict per the UNICEF on “how the world has failed them.” The school mass shootings in Florida, USA, the Dapchi schoolgirl abductions, mass atrocities by Killer Fulani Herdsmen in Benue State on New Year’s Day as well as atrocities in Syria have put 2018 on track to be as horrendous for the world’s children. A global response is required to this emergency.
15. The entertainment industry and in particular Disney and the Black Panther runaway success movie which speaks of a mythical African super hero should in practical terms help real life African victims of terror. It is noteworthy that Lupita Nyo’ongo’s character masqueraded as a captive Nigerian schoolgirl on a mission to rescue others. As art imitates life, it should also mitigate the pain of these victims’ lives. We urge Disney to at minimum donate all its income from Africa showings of the movie to assist victims of this terrorism.
Emmanuel Ogebe
Managing Partner
Managing Partner
US NIGERIA LAW GROUP
Washington DC USA
Seeking to end impunity in the Nigerian Genocide
Seeking to end impunity in the Nigerian Genocide
