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Air Force Can't Locate Dapchi Girls After Over 200 Hours Sorties - Nigerian Govt.

February 28, 2018

Nigeria government said the Air Force has been unable to locate the 110 students taken from their school in Dapchi town, Yobe State on Monday, February, 19 by Boko Haram insurgents despite logging up over 200 flight hours and engagement of its various intelligence platforms in the search for the girls.

The Nigerian presidency announced this in a series of tweets in which it announced the relocation of Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar to Yobe State to lead efforts for rescue of the schoolgirls.

The tweets are obviously intended as a response to criticisms that government has not done much in terms of rescue of the 110 girls kidnapped from Government Girls Science and Technical Secondary School in Bursari local government area of Yobe State.

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The Presidency through one its twitter handle, @NGRPresident said, “Today Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar @CAS_AMSadique relocated to Yobe State to personally superintend the search for the missing Dapchi girls.” 

“The @NigAirForce had earlier deployed more platforms to the N/East, as security agencies ramp up efforts to locate & rescue the girls.” “As at 6pm on Monday February 26, 2018, the @NigAirForce had flown a total of 200 hours conducting searches for the missing Dapchi girls.”

SaharaReporters had in an earlier report publish a report to indicated that Nigerian military authorities were informed of the impending Boko Haram attack in Yobe, weeks before the abduction of the girls.

But the military not only disregarded instruction to be on high alert, but also withdrew its troops from Dapchi, a situation which facilitated Boko Haram’s invasion and abduction of the schoolgirls. It also took the Nigerian government six days to officially confirm the kidnap.

The Police and the Nigerian military have been trading blames on the responsibility for the security lapses that led to the abduction of the girls.

Some sources had said girls have been taken to Kanama on the Nigerian-Nigerien border by their abductors.

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Military