Jonathan: I won’t visit Chibok until abducted girls are freed
President Goodluck Jonathan has said that he will visit Chibok, Borno State, only when the abducted schoolgirls are freed. Jonathan stated this at the State House in Abuja today while meeting with parents of the abducted girls, some of the girls who escaped from their abductors and leaders of the community. In a statement issued […]
President Goodluck Jonathan has said that he will visit Chibok, Borno State, only when the abducted schoolgirls are freed.
Jonathan stated this at the State House in Abuja today while meeting with parents of the abducted girls, some of the girls who escaped from their abductors and leaders of the community.
In a statement issued after the meeting by his spokesman, Reuben Abati, the president appealed for the parents’ patience, understanding and cooperation.
Jonathan reassured the Chibok community that his administration was doing everything possible to rescue the over 200 girls abducted from a college there in April and return them safely to their parents.
According to Abati, “the president said that although he was yet to visit Chibok in the aftermath of the abductions, his heart was constantly with its traumatised parents and people, and his desire was to visit them when their daughters have been freed and they can receive him with smiling faces of joy, rather than with tears of anguish”.
Abati quoted Jonathan to have told the parents thus: “Anyone who gives you the impression that we’re aloof and that we are not doing what we are supposed to do to get the girls out is not being truthful. Our commitment is not just to get the girls out, it’s also to rout Boko Haram completely from Nigeria. But we’re very, very mindful of the safety of the girls. We want to return them all alive to their parents. If they’re killed in any rescue effort, then we’ve achieved nothing.
“Our duty now is to take all relevant steps to recover our girls alive and our primary interest is getting them out as safely as possible. I’ll not want to say much, but we are doing everything humanly possible to get the girls out. This is not the time for talking much. This is the time for action. We’ll get to the time that we’ll tell stories. We’ll get to the time that we’ll celebrate and I assure you that, by God’s grace, that time will come soon”.
He said Jonathan responded to appeals from Chibok leaders for more help in overcoming some of the challenges imposed on Chibok and neighbouring communities by the Boko Haram insurgency by assuring that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and federal medical agencies would intensify efforts to provide them with additional relief aid and assistance.
According to him, Jonathan also assured them that Chibok and other communities in the three North-eastern states most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency would be the first beneficiaries of the Victims’ Support Fund, the Presidential Initiative for the North-East, the Safe Schools Initiative and other developmental programmes being evolved to address the damage, losses, setbacks, economic and social dislocations occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“We solicit your maximum cooperation. Let us work together. Evil can never overcome good. We will surely overcome Boko Haram”, the presidential aide also quoted his principal to have said.
Abati said Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, during the meeting, called for more sobriety, reflection and unity of purpose in the fight against terrorism in Nigeria.
He also quoted Shettima as pledging that his state would give Jonathan the fullest possible support for his efforts to address the problems caused by terrorism and the Boko Haram insurgency.
Abati, who said Dr Pogu Bitrus presented the Chibok community’s address to Jonathan, listed other speakers as including a district head, Mr. Zannamadu Usman; a member of the Borno State House of Assembly, Aminu Foni Chibok; parents of the abducted girls; and three of the girls who escaped from their captors, Godia Simon, Dorcas Musa and Joy Bishara.