No fewer than 100 female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, were on Monday night abducted by members of the outlawed militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
The incident took place less than 15 hours after four suicide bombers detonated Improvised Explosive Devices, killing 89 people in a busy motor park in Nyanya, a satellite community bordering the Federal Capital Territory and Nasarawa State.
Just before the news of the abduction spread on Tuesday, there was pandemonium at the National Assembly as a bomb scare forced lawmakers and workers to hurriedly close their offices.
Parents told the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation that the girls, who are Senior Secondary Schools Examination candidates, were woken up at about 10pm in their hostel by the insurgents and ordered into four waiting lorries.
A pupil, who did not wish to be named, was quoted as saying that she managed to escape after seeing some of her classmates jump out of the back of one of the lorries.
Our correspondent in Borno reported that the insurgents also killed an undisclosed number of people in the village, carted away food items and burnt some houses as well as vehicles.
It was learnt that some members of the special military force were among those killed by the terrorists, who were said to have had a field day.
A resident, Amos Ahmadu, said many people fled into nearby bushes while others managed to get to Damboa.
When contacted, the Borno state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Lawan Tanko, said he had sent his men to Chibok.
He however said he could not volunteer any further details for now.
In Abuja, a security scare at the National Assembly on Tuesday forced workers to flee home before the official closing time of 4pm.
The development started around 2pm following an alleged strange movement of a group of people in the Assembly complex.
It was learnt that the immediate response of the security operatives comprising the police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, further heightened the fear among the lawmakers and workers.
The security agents were seen frisking both visitors and workers at the sprawling complex.
At that point, the senior officers of the Assembly directed their junior colleagues to lock up their offices and close for the day.
One of the workers said, “They said that the premises should be evacuated before 2pm. I am running out, I don’t want to be caught up in any tragedy.”
One source alleged that the security alert was issued by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Salisu Maikasuwa.
But Maikasuwa expressed surprise that he was fingered for giving such a directive.
In a response to an electronic mail from The PUNCH, he replied, “Not from me (security alert). It is a rumour based on panic.
“We cannot authenticate the source. May God protect us. Thank you.”
Findings showed that security personnel at the National Assembly were equally confused as to the source of the alleged alert.
One of our correspondents contacted the offices of the Sergeant-At-Arms, the police, Department of State Security Service and the NSCDC at the National Assembly to authentic the source of the alleged alert but they also expressed surprise.
The Acting Sergeant-at-Arms of the National Assembly, Mr. Ibrahim Ndako, told journalists that there was nothing like a bomb scare in the complex. He attributed the workers’ panic to mere rumours.
Ndako said, “There is nothing like a bomb scare. It is just a rumour. Those banks chose to close because we had assured them that there was nothing like that. It was just a mere rumour.”
An SSS personnel, who did not want his name in print, said the office was also investigating how the “rumour came about.”
“People are running home over a claim of security alert. Alert from where? This is causing unnecessary panic”, the official stated.
But a worker in the Assembly, Idrisu Indimi, said, “What happened yesterday (Monday) was horrific. I think people are still in shock. The point is that there were rumours and people had to act the way they did.
“So, any mention of insecurity scares people to their bone marrows.”
It was also learnt that the scare also forced workers at the Federal Secretariat to close their offices for the day.
They were said to have panicked when they saw the National Assembly workers rushing to their homes.
An unconfirmed report attributed the rumour to Pastor T. B. Joshua, who was alleged to have in one of his predictions listed the National Assembly as a possible place of attack.
Source PUNCH