Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Chibok Community to Fed Govt: We Want Our Girls Back Not School Building
March 10, 2015
Written by Duku Joel, and Grace Obike
The Nation, Nigeria

Few days after the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, went to Chibok to lay the foundation for the Safe School Initiative of the Federal Government, the community rose yesterday against the Federal Government.

The parents called for the release of their daughters rather than building a school in their place.

Led by the Caretaker Chairman of Chibok Local Government Council, Mallam Ba’ana Lawan, the community accused the Federal Government of making several empty promises since the adoption of the girls last years.

Lawan, at a news conference in Maiduguri yesterday in company of many other prominent Chibok opinion leaders and parents of the Chibok Girls, expressed dismay over the Federal Government’s move to rebuild Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Chibok, destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents after abducting the schoolgirls.

The community alleged that “the traumatised parents and the entire people of Chibok community only want their children back home not rebuilding of their destroyed schools”.

His words:  “It is disheartening to inform you that since the abduction of these girls, the Federal Government did not bother to send delegations to Chibok to sympathise with the parents, instead, the parents were invited to Abuja and conveyed in cargo military plane with no comfort whatsoever.

“We still observe that recently, President Goodluck Jonathan visited Mubi and Baga, but failed to visit Chibok to sympathise with our people.

“We also observe that the president and Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh, had severally promised that these girls will soon be released. But it is now more than 300 days, and nothing of such happened. We thanked God and appreciate Governor Kashim Shettima and his wife, Hajiya Nana Kashim Shettima, who did not only visited Chibok when the incident took place, but also secured admission for the 59 schoolgirls that escaped from the Boko Haram to study in various schools in the country and for all other assistance the governor has rendered to the parents.

“It is most unfortunate that Chibok Local Government Area has witnessed six different attacks by insurgents and about 300 people lost their lives with property worth millions of naira destroyed, hundreds of houses razed down as well as food and cash crops looted. The most recent attacks were those carried out at Gatamwarwa, Kautikari and other surrounding villages, where several lives were lost. Yet there was no response from the Federal Government.

“We, therefore, condemn the reason best known to the Federal Government instead of bringing back our girls as severally promised, they decided to embark on the reconstruction of the school,” Lawan lamented.

Also yesterday, members of the Chibok community have accused the Presidency of fabricating stories about meeting with the parents of the abducted Chibok school girls in Maiduguri last Thursday.

They said the Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil, who ought to represent the president at the meeting, did not meet the parents.

The community added that Wakil was represented by his Special Adviser on Media, Olawale Rasheed, who also failed to meet any of the parents or relatives of the abducted school girls.

Members of the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), which is an umbrella body representing the Chibok community in Abuja, said the president’s representative only met with politicians and associates of the minister and then tagged them as parents of the Chibok girls.

Chairman of KADA, Hosea Tsambido said those at the meeting, who spoke, only expressed their personal opinions, but not that of the parents and families of the Chibok girls.

He spoke yesterday in Abuja, at a news conference organised by members of KADA in responds to actions and utterances of some government officials they said.

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