The Daily Beast
Parents of kidnapped Nigerian girls tried to get them out of school before they were taken
Habibu Iliyasu / AFP via Getty ImagesABUJA, Nigeria – Days before gunmen stormed a high school in northwestern Nigeria’s Zamfara state and kidnapped hundreds of students, school officials and local security agencies were warned there was danger in the city, especially in the area where the school is located, according to local residents. On Friday, heavily armed militants seized at least 315 girls who were staying at the Government Women’s High School in the city of Jangebe. The militants arrived on motorcycles at around 1:30 am local time and took the kidnapped girls to the nearby forest, leaving the victims’ relatives upset and anxious. Residents said “strange men” patrolled the school area and intimidated members of the local community around the school days before the kidnappings took place. “Suddenly, we saw strange men on the street [leading to the Government Girls’ Secondary School] at night acting as if there are security guards, ”Danlami Umar, who lives near the school, told The Daily Beast. “They were stopping passersby and asking them where they were going.” The men were occupying the neighborhood around the school for two days before the incident, harassing pedestrians and alerting residents to alert police officers about their activities. Play ‘After a military plane crashed close to finding kidnapped Nigerian students “As soon as we reported them, they disappeared from the area,” said Umar. “We then told the police to increase security in the school area, but that was not done.” But those who lived near the school were not the only ones to express concern about the security situation in the area. Some family members, the Daily Beast found, asked school officials to close the board and allow girls to attend classes as daytime students because of the growing reports of criminal activity in the surrounding areas. His pleas fell on deaf ears. “People complained that their homes were being invaded at night by armed men and that their children were constantly harassed by these thugs, so some parents asked the school to close the pension just in case these criminals decide to visit the school one day” , said Jibril Abubakar, whose niece attends the school but is not among the missing, “Unfortunately, someone at the school said that the authorities could not close the dormitories on their own, claiming they needed to get approval from the state education ministry before to do so, “added Abubakar. Concerns about their children’s safety have forced some parents to prevent their children from returning to their dormitories, rather than having them attend school as daytime students, according to Abubakar. change may have prevented more girls from being kidnapped on Friday. “Some parents predicted this and did what was right, keeping their daughters away they are not, ”said Abubakar. “If not, we would have more than 500 missing girls today.” No group has yet claimed responsibility for Friday’s kidnappings, which occurred more than a week after 42 people, including 27 students, were kidnapped in a similar attack at a government school in central Nigeria’s north-central Niger state. The boys have not yet been recovered. Almost 24 hours after the Jangebe girls were apprehended, a joint operation involving the police and the army was unable to identify their location. “There is information that they have been transferred to a neighboring forest and we are tracking and taking care,” said Abutu Yaro, police commissioner for the state of Zamfara, at a news conference on Friday night. Rising insecurity in northwest and central-northern parts of Nigeria, especially after hundreds of students were kidnapped in Katsina state last December, forced state governments in two regions to close boarding schools in vulnerable areas. The Zamfara government waited until Friday’s kidnappings before taking similar measures. But for many in the turbulent city of Jangebe, the change came too late. “If they had acted on the spot, the girls would be with their families and no one would beg the military to find their daughters,” said Abubakar. “This indifferent attitude by the government must stop.” Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.