Chibok: Only God, Shettima know the truth–Presidency

•Says school authority set target for girls’ abduction. The Presidency says only God and Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima know the truth about the abduction of the schoolgirls of Chibok, Borno State. The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, said this late Monday night while featuring on BBC World […]

•Says school authority set target for girls’ abduction.

The Presidency says only God and Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima know the truth about the abduction of the schoolgirls of Chibok, Borno State.

The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, said this late Monday night while featuring on BBC World Hard Talk.

Okupe, who was responding to a question on the exact number of the missing girls, said the state commissioner for education and the principal of the school also knew the truth about the abduction saga.

The presidential aide said with the conflicting accounts by the governor, the affected parents and the principal, the truth would be known “in the fullness of time”.

“Only God, the governor of Borno State, the commissioner for education and the principal of that school know the truth about this matter. This is the real issue…In the fullness of time, by God’s grace, we’d probably know exactly what has happened. But I’m telling you that only God, the governor of Borno state, the commissioner for education and the principal (know the truth) because there is nobody that has spoken on this matter, whether the governor, the parents or the principal, that has said the same thing. There have been so many versions”, he said.

Denying that the abduction was a reflection of the incapability of the Nigerian military, Okupe alleged that the school authority set the target for it.

“The girls were a soft target. There were over 200 girls in the secondary school. The principal was not on sight, the vice principal was not there, none of the teachers was there. There was no light, no electricity or generator. So, it was just like setting target”, he said.

Asked why it took the president more than two weeks to address Nigerians on the issue, Okupe said taking immediate action to rescue the girls is more important than addressing Nigerians.

He explained that the president summoned the service chiefs immediately the news of the abduction broke and convened a security council meeting the following day, with instructions given and actions taken.

“The issue is addressing the Nigerian people or taking immediate action that’ll assist in rescuing the girls? I’m Doyin Okupe, I work with this president, I speak with him almost 24 hours everyday. I know the night that this news broke. And I know immediately that this news broke, military officers were summoned; the very next day, the security council meeting was held, instructions were given, actions were taken”, he said.

On why all the actions he talked about have failed so completely, Okupe replied, “For the same reason kidnapping all over the world is not a soap opera. It’s not easy. 276 girls were taken, the Chief of Defence said recently. It’s not that the intelligence is not working. We know where the girls are…There is no confusion about it (girls’ whereabouts). The military knows where the girls are. I may not know. I’m not a military person, but I rely on what the Chief of Defence said and the president is aware”.

Asked whether the military has not admitted its inability to rescue the girls by merely claiming to know the girls’ location, Okupe said: “I’m surprised that you’re saying that. You know the Americans were held hostage, 54 of them were held hostage in Tenran in 1979 or something like that. It took the American government 444 days to free them. Why are you talking like this? 444 days, one and half years”.

Responding to a question of why the military cannot free the girls from Sambisa forest, a Nigerian territory, where they are held hostage, Okupe said: “Yes (it is Sambisa forest) which is extremely very difficult to navigate. The number of the girls makes it extremely very difficult for us because we don’t want to lose any of the girls. The whole world is concerned, everybody has aired his voice, but we’ve a bigger burden; we must not lose any of these girls. The president has promised that he would get the girls out and he’s going to do that”.

The presidential aide also disagree that the abduction showcased the inability of the Nigerian government to protect its innocent civilian population,
alleging that the incident occurred because the state government ignored the instruction to close down the school.

“Borno is a massive state with over 150, 000 square kilometers of land. There are over 2,000 or 3,000 schools in this state. So, what you could do is to have security in these schools but in this particular situation, schools have been instructed to close down and the federal government has closed down all its schools. Schools in Yobe were closed down and because of this examination, pupils were taken to most secure areas. But for some reasons, Borno didn’t get it right”, he said.