Securing missing Chibok girls is my responsibility – Buhari
on January 14, 2016 / in News 6:33 pm / Comments
*Orders investigation into abduction of the school girls
*says I have done my best
By Levinus Nwabughiogu
ABUJA – President Muhammadu Buhari, Thursday said that securing the release and safe return of the missing 219 Chibok girls was his responsibility.
This came as he ordered National Security Adviser, NSA, General Babagana Munguno to set up a panel to investigate the abduction of the girls from Government Secondary in Chibok, Borno State in April 2014.
The panel however is yet to be named by NSA.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu on Thursday stated that the "investigation will seek to, among other things, unravel the remote and immediate circumstances leading the kidnap of the girls by Boko Haram terrorists as well the other events, actions and in actions that followed the incident."
Meanwhile, speaking at a meeting attended by some parents of the abducted girls, representatives of the Chibok community and members of the Bring Back Our Girls movement at the Banquet Hall of the State House, President Buhari said that he remained fully committed to his pledge to rescue the girls.
He regretted that the previous government he succeeded failed to purchase the necessary weapons meant to adequately combat insurgency in the country.
"I assure you that I go to bed and wake up every day with the Chibok girls on my mind. The unfortunate incident happened before this government came into being.
"What have we done since we assumed office? We re-organized the military, removed all the service chiefs and ordered the succeeding service chiefs to deal decisively with the Boko Haram insurgency.
"In spite of the terrible economic condition we found ourselves in, we tried to get some resources to give to the military to reorganize and equip, retrain, deploy more troops and move more forcefully against Boko Haram.
"And you all know the progress we have made. When we came in Boko Haram was in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. Boko Haram has now been reduced to areas around Lake Chad.
"Securing the Chibok girls is my responsibility. The service chiefs and heads of our security agencies will tell you that in spite of the dire financial straits that we found the country in, I continue to do my best to support their efforts in that regard.
"This is a Nigeria where we were exporting average of two million barrels per day at over 140 dollars per barrel. Now it is down to about 27 to 30 dollars.
"You have been reading in the press how they took public funds, our funds, your funds and shared it, instead of buying weapons. That was the kind of leadership I succeeded. That was the kind of economy I inherited.
President Buhari who was accompanied to the meeting by the Minister of Defence, Mansur Mohammed Dan Ali, Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Aisha Alhassan, Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Gabriel Olonisakin, Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen Tukur Buratai and the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd) however stated he had tried his best to secure the release of the girls.
"God knows I have done my best and I will continue to do my best," President Buhari said.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Chief of Defence staff told the meeting that in the last three months the military has liberated more than 3000 people kidnapped by Boko Haram in the North eastern part of the country.
He said that the military had the ability to rescue the Chibok girls, but added that "intelligence is delicate and we don't want to do anything to jeopardize the lives of the girls."
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DAILY TRUST
Buhari orders investigation into Chibok girls' abduction
By Isiaka Wakili | Publish Date: Jan 14 2016 8:05PM | Updated Date: Jan 14 2016 8:07PM
Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/buhari-orders-investigation-into-chibok-girls-abduction/129008.html#e3PVuFE5SCvx6wSo.99
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered an investigation into the abduction of the 219 girls from Government Secondary in Chibok, Borno State.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said this in a statement on Thursday.
Shehu said the panel to investigate the abduction which occurred in April 2014 would soon be named by the National Security Adviser, General Babagana Munguno.
He said the investigation would seek to, among other things; unravel the remote and immediate circumstances leading to the kidnap of the girls by Boko Haram terrorists as well the other events, actions and inactions that followed the incident.
He said this came to light just as Buhari assured parents of the Chibok girls that he had been doing his best and would continue to do everything possible to rescue them and re-unite them with their families.
Shehu quoted Buhari as saying this at the State House in Abuja yesterday during a meeting with some parents of the missing girls, representatives of the Chibok community and members of the BringBackOurGirls movement.
He said the president noted that he remained committed to his pledge to do all within his powers to save the girls.
"I assure you that I go to bed and wake up every day with the Chibok girls on my mind. The unfortunate incident happened before this government came into being.
What have we done since we assumed office? We reorganised the military, removed all the service chiefs and ordered the succeeding service chiefs to deal decisively with the Boko Haram insurgency.
"In spite of the terrible economic condition we found ourselves in, we tried to get some resources to give to the military to reorganize and equip, retrain, deploy more troops and move more forcefully against Boko Haram. And you all know the progress we have made. When we came in Boko Haram was in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. Boko Haram has now been reduced to areas around Lake Chad.
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THE NATION
BBOG, Chibok girls' parents march on Aso Villa
PRINCIPAL OF THE GOVERNMENT GIRLS SECONDARY SCHOOL, CHIBOK , MRS. ASABA KWAMBURA (LEFT) WITH THE SCHOOL GIRLS WHO ESCAPED FROM THE CAMP OF THE TERRORISTS
Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign leader Dr. Oby Ezekwesili yesterday led members of the group and parents of the abducted Chibok Secondary School girls on a protest to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Over 200 girls were abducted in their school in Borno State on April 14, 2014.
The group was received by Minister of Women Affairs Hajia Aisha Alhassan, Minister of Defence Brig. Gen. Dan Ali, National Security Adviser Babangana Monguno and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Gabriel Olonishakin, at the old Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.
But the group decried the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to receive them at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari, at the time of the protest, was receiving the visiting Benin Republic President Boni Yayi in his office.
After addressing the group, Alhassan asked Ezekwesili to brief the gathering on their mission to the Presidential Villa, but she politely declined.
The ex-minister, who insisted on meeting with the President, explained that Buhari in July promised to rescue the girls and they were in the Villa to hear from him on what he had done so far.
According to her, members of the movement had nothing to say until they hear from the President.
After explanations from each member of the government's delegation, the National Security Adviser announced that he would try to get the President to come and address the group.
Ezekwesili also decried Alhassan's remark that the group did not give enough notice before coming.
The former minister told Alhassan: "You have been unfair to the movement and Nigerians. When the minister, NSA, Chief of Defence Staff spoke, their tones connected with the parents."
After about three hours of waiting, the President arrived around 1:45 p.m. after ending his meeting with Yayi.
He held a closed meeting with the parents and others.
Reporters were asked to leave the venue of the meeting when Buhari entered the hall.
A copy of the speech presented by Ezekwesili to the President during the closed meeting showed that the President was told that the Federal Government could not claim victory over Boko Haram without rescuing the girls.
The document reads: "It is, therefore, with the deepest pain and disappointment that the parents, Chibok community and our movement are here again six months after our July 8 meeting to register our absolute dissatisfaction on the lack of progress.
"Our Chibok girls have neither been rescued nor have the measures the Federal Government pledged being instituted. Our disappointment was worse recently when Mr. President shocked the parents into a deeper throe of agony when you publicly gave the excuse 'that there is no credible information about the girls' 'whereabouts' as the reason our Chibok girls have not been rescued."
She added that the President's remark left the parents, the community, the movement and the rest of the world in shock, considering that the Federal Government that had made the girls' rescue a key indicator of success and defeat of Boko Haram, later declared victory on December 31.
"How can we declare that our nation has won the war when our 219 daughters and other abducted victims are still not back? The parents of our Chibok girls, whom you successfully persuaded at our July 8 meeting, had, following that meeting, told our movement that they had implicit trust in the words of Mr. President that "everything will be done to rescue our daughters…
"Mr. President, it is extremely sad that those same parents, who had placed their implicit confidence in your July 8 promise to rescue their daughters, are here today terribly traumatised, disconsolate and desperate for your reassurance and outline of convincing decisive action that would bring a positive closure to this historical tragedy.
"There is no better way to convey the depth of the devastation of these parents than the fact that we today have the largest ever contingent of them, who despite their meagre resources, have paid their way to Abuja to register their angst, disappointment and demand for rescue of their daughters by Mr. President and the military."
Also speaking with reporters at the end of the meeting, Ezekwesili said: "Mr. President subsequently came to join this meeting and what the President said was that his statement during the media chat that they did not have credible intelligence was being truthful in the way that he knows how to be and that he was not prepared to tell any lies.
"That they do not have the kind of reliable intelligence that would enable them rescue the girls as immediately as we are demanding and that, therefore, we would continue to try to bear with him and that based on the fact that the government has recorded considerable success in decimating Boko Haram and its hold over the Northeast and that what remains is rescuing our Chibok girls and other affected citizens that are in abduction.
"And that, therefore, we will have to wait and that they would make the effort. He pleaded with the parents that his government would place as much efforts to rescuing the girls and that was the same message he had given to them before and that he was repeating the same message.
The President stated that he would also have expected us to acknowledge the efforts made, but that he wishes that we would agree that he was committed to the matter of our Chibok girls.
"He used the specific phrase that he sleeps and wakes up thinking about the rescue of our girls."
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THE WILL
Buhari Orders Journalists Out Of BBOG meeting As Ezekwesili Accuses Minister Of Unfair Treatment
January 14, 2016
BEVERLY HILLS, January 14, (THEWILL) – Journalists were on Thursday prevented from witnessing a meeting President Muhammadu Buhari had with parents of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls and members of the Bring Back Our Girls, BBOG, campaign group.
The President through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, told newsmen who were already at the banquet hall venue of the meeting in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa to go out on the ground that "sensitive issues" were to be discussed.
The President, who was said to have been at a meeting when the protesting parents and BBOG members arrived, sent a delegation led by the Minister of Women Affairs, Senator Aisha Alhassan, as his representative to them. The group had refused to leave when told that President Buhari would not be meeting with them.
The Chibok girls' sympathizers stood their ground on seeing the President, who had on July 8, 2015 promised to rescue the abducted schoolgirls. Their insistence attracted to them the government delegation that also included the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Monguno; Minister of Defence, Mohammed Dan Ali and Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonishakin.
Mrs. Alhassan, in her remarks, faulted the Chibok parents and the BBOG members for giving government a short notice of their coming, adding that Buhari was meeting with President Boni Yayi of Benin Republic at the time of their protest.
But former Minister of Education and leader of the group, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili responded by telling the minister that she has not being fair to them, stressing that "I don't understand why you can be chiding the parents and the movement. These parents were triggered by the words of the president who promised to rescue their daughters."
It was at this point that Shehu interrupted by announcing that the president would now meet the protesters. However, when Buhari eventually made it to the meeting, journalists were ordered to go out.
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