A twelve-member committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction of one hundred and ten students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College, GGSTC, Dapchi, Yobe, has been set up by Federal Government.

The committee, which will be chaired by a military officer of the rank of Major-General, comprised one senior Provost each from the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air Force.

Other members of the committee included representatives of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA; Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA; Nigeria Police Force, NPF; Department of State Services, DSS, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.

According to Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the committee was convened by the National Security Adviser, NSA, Major-General Babagana Monguno retired.

Mohammed said the committee also included two representatives of the Yobe State Government and a representative of the Office of the National Security Adviser, saying the terms of reference of the Committee included ascertaining the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the girls.

He said the committee would confirm the presence, composition, scale and disposition of security emplaced in
Dapchi and in GGSTC before the incident, saying the committee would suggest measures that could lead to the location and rescue of the girls and recommend measures to prevent future occurrence.

Mohammed said the committee which would be inaugurated today was expected to submit its report by March fifteen, saying ealier, the federal government released names of the missing girls.

The list, which the minister said was handed over to him by the Yobe Government, contained the name, age, and class of each of the students, saying out of the missing girls, eight were said to be in JSS1, 17 in JSS2, 12 in JSS3, 40 in SS1, 19 in SS2 and 14 in SS3.

Mohammed said the girls’ ages range from 11 to 19 years.

The list, which also contains the contact address and phone number of each missing girl, was said to have been verified by a 26-member Screening Committee that includes the Executive Secretary, State Teaching Service Board, Musa Abdulsalam; Director, Schools’ Management, Ministry of Education, Shuaibu Bulama; Principal of GGSTC, Adama Abdulkarim; the two Vice Principals, Ali Musa Mabu and Abdullahi Sule Lampo; Admission Officer, Bashir Ali Yerima, and the Form Masters for all the classes.

Meanwhile, Mohammed said the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, had relocated to Yobe State to personally superintend the search for the girls.

He said the Nigerian Air Force had earlier deployed more platforms to the North-East for the search, as the security agencies ramp up their efforts to locate and rescue the girls.

“As at 6 p.m. on Monday, the NAF had flown a total of 200 hours while conducting the search,” Mohammed added.