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| Jonathan |
A statement sent to SHOWBIZPLUSng by the Special
Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, stated that
Jonathan while speaking at a meeting in the Presidential Villa with parents of
the abducted girls, some of the girls who escaped from their abductors and
leaders of the community, appealed for their patience, understanding and
cooperation.
“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,” President Jonathan told the parents and community leaders at the
meeting which was also attended by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State,
Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State and the Senate President, Senator
David Mark.
The President said that although he was yet to
visit Chibok in the aftermath of the abductions, his heart was constantly with
its traumatized 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.
“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 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,” President Jonathan told them.
Responding to appeals from the community leaders
for more help in overcoming some of the challenges imposed on Chibok and
neighbouring communities by the Boko Haram insurgency, the President said that
the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Federal Medical Agencies
will intensify their efforts to provide them with additional relief aid and
assistance.
He also assured them that Chibok and other
communities in the three North-Eastern States most affected by the Boko Haram
insurgency will be the first beneficiaries of the Victims’ Support Fund, the
Presidential Initiative for the North-East, the Safe Schools Initiative and
other developmental programmes which the Federal Government is evolving 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,” he told them.
In his remarks at the
meeting, Governor Shettima called for more sobriety, reflection and unity of
purpose in the fight against terrorism in the country.
He pledged that his
state will give President Jonathan the fullest possible support for 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.
Other speakers at the
meeting included a district head, Mr. Zannamadu Usman, a member of the
Borno State House of Assembly, Hon. 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.
National Security
Chiefs, Ministers and other senior government officials were also at the
meeting.
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