TheCable

The school was razed by the insurgents

The police authorities are seeking photos of the hundreds of secondary school girls that were abducted from Chibok, Borno State, over two weeks ago.

This is to aid the search effort and confirm the identities of the missing girls because school records were burned in the attack.

They have called on their parents to produce the photos to help investigation, the BBC has reported.

The total number of girls abducted from the school is now thought to be 329 – far more than previous estimated.

On the bright side, 53 of them have escaped and returned home.

However, 276 are still missing – as against the often-quoted figure of 234 which journalists have been working with since the incident happened.

The girls – all teenagers – are believed to have been abducted by Boko Haram insurgents who reportedly came dressed in military uniform.

Briefing journalists in Maiduguri, Borno State, on Friday, police and SSS officials revealed the new figures.

They now have the “authentic list” – which is different from that provided by the school authorities.

Following conflicting reports given by the school, the state government and military authorities in the past, the military headquarters announced on Thursday that the state government would now co-ordinate public information on the incident.

The state police commissioner, Tanko Lawan, said that the new figures are more reliable because they were carefully collated from various members of the Chibok community and surrounding villages.

‪“It is really difficult to say the actual number of girls that were abducted. This is because, students from other secondary schools within the catchment area were deployed to GGSS Chibok to write their final year examinations due to the peculiar security challenges in Borno State,” Lawan said.

‪He disclosed that the students were drawn from schools in Izge, Lassa, Ashigashiya and Warabe A.

This was responsible for the conflicting figures, he said.

‪”There is serious collaboration between various security agencies at all levels towards rescuing the girls,” Lawan added.