by Olalekan Adetayo
(Pix
1) President Jonathan with some of the escaped schoolgirls at the
Presidential Villa...on Tuesday. (Pix 2) Some of the girls’ parents in
the Villa.
| credits: AFP
President
Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday met with parents of the girls abducted
from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14
by Boko Haram insurgents.
Journalists were barred from the
meeting which took place inside the Banquet Room of the Presidential
Villa, Abuja, exactly 99 days after the girls were forcibly taken away
from their school hostel at night .
The Presidency had in a statement last
week promised that the meeting would be “open to the Nigerian and
international media for coverage.”
But our correspondent gathered from a
source at the meeting that some of the 51 girls, who escaped from their
captors wept as they narrated their ordeal to Jonathan.
He said that the girls appealed to the
President to expedite action and ensure that their colleagues who are
still in captivity are rescued on time.
The source added, “The girls narrated how they jumped out of moving vehicles on the night of their abduction.
“They said they ran into the bush without any knowledge of where they were and where they were heading for.
“The girls said they trekked cautiously
inside the thick bush up until daybreak before they saw some Fulani men
who offered to assist them because they were still in their school
uniforms.
“They said they were moved on motorcycles by the Fulani men who assisted them.”
Our source added that four other girls
also told the President that they escaped when they went to fetch
water from a stream.
According to him, the girls who said
they were five as of the time of their escape, regretted that they could
not locate one of them who fled in another direction.
He said, “They told the President that they managed to escape when they went to fetch water from a stream.
“They said they were being guided by two
men, that at a point, five of them managed to escape. Four of them went
in the same direction while one went in another direction. They do not
know the whereabouts of the fifth girl who went in another direction.”
He added that many at the meeting,
especially women, shed tears when the girls started pleading with the
President to do everything within his powers to ensure that their
colleagues were rescued.
The meeting was also attended by the
President of the Senate, David Mark ; Borno State Governor Kashim
Shettima; his Bauchi State counterpart, Isa Yuguda; some members of the
Federal Executive Council, security chiefs, the principal of the
GSS, opinion and community leaders from Chibok.
The 51 escaped girls, their parents and
others were conveyed to and fro the venue of the meeting in four red
luxury buses belonging to the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company Limited
amid tight security provided by a combined team of men of the
Department of State Service and policemen.
The security operatives shielded them from journalists before and after the meeting that lasted about three hours.
The venue wore a sombre look with the escaped girls who looked traumatised being the cynosure of all eyes.
The meeting started with the arrival of
Jonathan, who was joined by Mark, Shettima, Yuguda, some FEC
members and the security chiefs .
Immediately the meeting commenced at about 11:20am, journalists were asked to leave the venue.
The doors of the Baquet Room were only
re-opened to journalists shortly after the President had made his
closing remarks. Photojournalists were however able to capture him in a
group photograph with the escaped girls.
The Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, told State House correspondents
after the meeting that his boss had the opportunity to listen
first-hand to the various categories of persons.
Abati described the meeting as a good
development because Jonathan had always been looking forward to such an
opportunity, having met with other stakeholders on the matter before.
Abati said, “Statements were made by all
the representatives. They spoke their minds and conveyed their feelings
to the President.
“The girls who escaped also gave an
account of what they went through. Mr. President reassured them of the
Federal Government’s determination and his own personal determination to
ensure that the girls that are still in captivity are brought out
alive.
“That is the main objective of the
government. Mr. President also used the opportunity to reassure the
parents and the girls that everything will be done to make things
easier for them, especially those who have escaped and the ones that
will also be rescued. He promised them that their education will not in
anyway suffer and he is convinced that evil will never prevail over
good.
“Mr. President further assured them that
after the battle has been won and the girls are brought back home, he,
together with the parents and the (Borno) state government will focus on
development, on building Chibok, on building all that the terrorists
had destroyed and on ensuring that every child, either in Chibok or in
any other part of the country, has his/her dream realised.
“At the end of the meeting, the parents were happy. Everybody was in high spirits.”
He added that Jonathan told the gathering that efforts were being made to place the escaped girls in other schools.
On media reports that most of the real
parents of the abducted girls were not part of the meeting, Abati said
the parents who attended made it clear that they were representatives of
other parents.
He said over 200 people from Chibok attended the meeting.
“The girls spoke in great details about
their experiences and their observations. It was an open and frank
session in which everybody expressed their minds,” he concluded.
Abati later issued a statement in which
he said that Jonathan’s desire was to visit Chibok after the abducted
girls might have been rescued.
According to Abati, the President
believes that it is only then that the parents of the girls could
receive him with smiling faces rather than with tears.
He said that the President told the
gathering that his heart was constantly with the parents, despite the
fact that he had not visited their town.
The statement read in part, “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 will 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 will get to the time that we will tell
stories. We will get to the time that we will celebrate and I assure you
that, by God’s grace, that time will come soon.
“Anyone who gives you the impression
that we are 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 is also to rout Boko Haram completely from Nigeria. But we
are very, very mindful of the safety of the girls. We want to return
them all alive to their parents. If they are killed in any rescue
effort, then we have achieved nothing.”
The President was quoted as saying that
the National Emergency Management Agency and federal medical agencies
would intensify their efforts to provide the people of Chibok and their
neighbours with additional relief aid and assistance.
He also assured them that Chibok and
other communities in the three North-East states most affected by the
Boko Haram insurgency would be the first beneficiaries of the Victims’
Support Fund, a Presidential Initiative for the North-East.
The VSF and the Safe Schools Initiative
are some of the developmental programmes which the Federal Government
put in place to address the damage, losses, setbacks, economic and
social dislocations occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgency.
Abati also quoted the Borno State
governor as calling for more sobriety, reflection and unity of purpose
in the fight against terrorism in the country.
He pledged that his state would give
Jonathan the fullest possible support in his efforts to address the
problems caused by terrorism and the Boko Haram insurgency.
Dr. Pogu Bitrus presented the Chibok community’s address to the President.
Others who spoke at the meeting were a
district head, Mr. Zannamadu Usman; a member of the Borno State House of
Assembly, Aminu Foni Chibok; and some of the parents of the abducted
girls.
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