The federal government has said that after a total of 200 hours of conducting searches for the missing Dapchi school girls, the Airforce is yet to locate their whereabouts.
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Nigeria President Muhamamdu Buhari-led federal government has admitted that the Air Force has been unable to locate the 110 female students abducted from their school in Dapchi town, Yobe State, despite logging up over 200 flight hours and engagement of its various intelligence platforms in the search for the girls.
In a series of Tweets posted online, the Nigerian Presidency announced the re-location of Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar to Yobe State to lead efforts for rescue of the schoolgirls who were kidnapped on Monday, February, 19 by Boko Haram insurgents.
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.
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.”
In a new post, the presidency wrote: "The Min of Interior has directed the IG of Police & the Commandant General of NSCDC to relocate to the northeast & liaise with the theater commander of #OpLafiyaDole & Govs of Yobe, Borno & Adamawa to ensure deployment of personnel to all schools in liberated areas in the States.
"The Minister said that the directive has become necessary to forestall a re-occurrence of the attack on innocent school children."
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.