President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday met with parents of the girls abducted from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14 by Boko Haram insurgents. The meeting however turned into an emotional moment in history as some of the parents and girls fought back tears inside the Banquet Room of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Tuesday marked exactly 99 days after the girls were frisked away by their captors. Journalists were barred from the meeting at a time. The fallout of the meeting was a promise by the president to rescue the remaining girls and ensure that all the girls have better education.
Some of the girls wept as they narrated their harrowing experience in the hands of their captors. While appealing to the president to ensure the rescue of their colleagues, the girls said they had to jump off moving vehicles to escape.
“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,” a source at the meeting said.
The meeting was 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.
Some of the parents wore long faces, apparently those whose children were still missing while some could barely manage a smile.
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. But 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 any way 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.
