President Goodluck Jonathan has met with parents of the abducted schoolgirls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
The meeting which is coming after ninety nine days that over 200 girls were abducted from the school, also had the 57 escaped girls, some community and opinion leaders from Chibok.
The meeting tagged “Special meeting of the President with the parents of the abducted Chibok Girls”, held at the banquet hall of the Presidential Villa was held behind closed door for hours.
Jonathan was join in the meeting by the President of the Senate, David Mark; Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State; Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State; National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, ministers of Information, Labaran Maku, Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Education, Ibrahim Shakarau, Interior, Abba Moro, Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe, among other Federal Executive Council.
Fielding questions from the State House Correspondents on the refugees that have spill over to Bauchi State, Yuguda disclosed the state was playing host to over two million refugees, saying this was putting a strain on its resources.
“It’s been a major challenge, you know Bauchi is surrounded by all the states having security challenges and many refugees have been pouring into it. Presently we have over two million refugees in Bauchi but the good news is that we have been able to settle them down. No refugee is any camp, we have given them land to settle and have provided some shelters for them. We have tried our best to provide water and some basic facilities so that they can start life over again. It’s not been easy, our resources are over stretched, the little we have has to be shared with the refugees”.
“We are looking forward to some support. Only recently we received some items – food, blankets from NEMA but we need a lot more. I’m sure these guys are not going back to where they came from, they have settled and settled permanently and I think the federal government should take on that and see how they can be properly resettled”.
“The meeting was intended to be an interactive session for Mr. President to listen to the parents, community leaders and most importantly to some of the girls that escaped from Sambisa forest. The parents were happy to listen to the President assuring them of the commitment, of the determination of government to rescue the abducted girls and in particular assuring those of them that are now back with their parents of the continuation of their education and protection of lives and properties,” he said.
Also speaking on the issue, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, described the meeting as successful and a good development as the President heard directly from the persons involved.
“It was a very successful event and a good development because Mr. President had always been looking forward to this opportunity. Before now he had met with various stakeholders on the matter but today he heard directly from the persons involved.
“Statements were made by all the representatives of people. 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 empathise with the parents and the girls and to reassure them that everything will be done to make things easier for them, especially those who have escaped and the ones that will also be rescued, that their education will not in anyway suffer and he is convinced that evil will never prevail over good.
“Mr. President further assured that after the battle has been won and the girls are brought back home, he, together with the parents and the 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”.
Abati said the parents of the Chibok girls were happy at the end of the meeting and everyone was in high spirit.
“Mr. President made it clear that their education won’t be truncated. The government is making efforts to place these young girls in other schools and that they should not be afraid about their future because everything will be done to protect their right to education.
“The parents made it clear that they are representatives of other parents. And you can see that we have over 200 people coming from Chibok.
“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,” Abati stated.
