….as 83 families gets N 11m from Borno government
By Gabriel Atumeyi
Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, has directed that Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, where over 200 girls were abducted in 2014 by Boko Haram insurgents, should be reconstructed and remodelled with urgency.
The governor gave the order on Monday after inspecting the school.
The move to rehabilitate the facility comes five years after the Jonathan administration pledged to rebuild the school after the attack.
Although the defunct Presidential Residential Committee on North-east Intervention (PCNI) had done some work in the school, some of its roof had reportedly collapsed when Zulum visited.
In March 2015, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of Finance, visited Chibok and laid the foundation stone for the construction of a new school of international standards to replace the vandalised structure.
But Zulum said nothing was done and the school remained in bad shape since the day it was attacked by the insurgents.
“I hereby direct the ministry of education to deploy a team of experts to assess the entire school and come up with a design and costing so that I can approve the immediate reconstruction and remodeling of this school. We will also ensure that the school is allocated adequate teachers, already I have given a directive for recruitment of more teachers both on permanent and ad-hoc staffing that will include volunteer teachers,” Zulum said.
“Of course, before allocation of teachers, the reconstruction will involve the provision of all components of learning materials including functional laboratory for sciences. By the I return here next time, I want to see a completely different scene.”
About 106 of the girls have regained their freedom while the whereabouts of 112 of them remain unknown.
Zulum also visited 83 families affected by Boko Haram attacks in Takulashi, a community in Chibok local government, and directed the release of N11m as social protection for them.