Connect with us

Politics

CHIBOK GIRLS: Jonathan denies shunning UK, says I also called US, France for help

Published

on

CHIBOK GIRLS: Jonathan denies shunning UK, says I also called US, France for help

Nigeria’s former President Goodluck Jonathan has denied reports that he rejected assistance for the United Kingdom government to help rescue the missing Chibok girls soon after they were kidnapped by the Boko Haram terror group.

According to him, the nation was well aware that he reached out to the governments of France, US and the UK to help Nigeria after the girls were kidnapped from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno State.

A foreign tabloid had reported on Saturday that the Jonathan administration would not accept assistance from the UK government to rescue the girls, even after air reconnaissance by the Royal Airforce located the whereabouts of the girls in the terrorists’ enclave.

According to the report, “The girls were located in the first few weeks of the RAF mission,” a source involved in Operation Turus told the Observer. “We offered to rescue them, but the Nigerian government declined.”

But Jonathan in a statement by his media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, said the lies in the report are self-evident, as the media actively covered the multinational efforts and collaboration, and that some of the major powers deploying crack intelligence officers who worked with Nigerian security operatives, and those of its neighbours.

He said, “In the course of the mission, the international team, including members from Nigeria’s neighbours of Chad, Niger and Cameroun, met regularly with our own intelligence officers to plan and conduct their operations.

“In fact, the Jonathan administration was so genuinely supportive that the foreign powers involved were granted permission to overfly our airspace, while conducting the search and rescue missions,” he said.

Eze also revealed, that the ex-president personally wrote to former U.S president, Barack Obama, President Francois Hollande of France, and David Cameron, the former Prime Minister of the UK on the issue.

Jonathan, he further said, also made personal contacts to the governments of Israel and China, seeking their assistance in the search for the abducted Chibok girls.

“We are however not surprised that this kind of concocted story is coming out at this point in time, as it appears that some people who have obviously been playing politics with the issue of the Chibok girls will stop at nothing to further their interest”, he asserted.

Read also: ‘Jonathan rejected British offer to rescue Chibok schoolgirls’

About 276 girls were kidnapped in April 2014 from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram. 57 of them escaped over the next few months.

There were hopes that more of the girls, if not all would be released last year, when news made the round that Boko Haram had opened a negotiation line to release the girls in exchange for their jailed commanders.

Though the Nigerian government was not forthcoming on this, 21 girls of the girls were released to the government in October 2016. Earlier in May 2016, one of the missing girls, Amina Ali, was found. She claimed that the remaining girls were still there, but that six had died.

An advocacy group, BringBAckOurGirls (#BBOG) led by a former minister for education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili has continued to be the lone consistent voice clamouring for the release of all the girls.

 

 

 

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Click here to download the Ripples Nigeria App for latest updates

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now

Click to comment

0 Comments

  1. Gold Ruyondo

    March 6, 2017 at 6:34 am

    why continue to witch hunt Goodluck

  2. Margret Dickson

    March 6, 2017 at 11:19 am

    I honestly see the report as defamation of character! Jonathan should have sued the tabloid huge amount of pounds instead of replying them via media.

  3. Animashaun Ayodeji

    March 6, 2017 at 11:27 am

    It is hurtful to say Jonathan administration rejected assistance from the UK government to rescue the girls. If Jonathan had done everything wrong about rescuing the Chibok girls, reaching out for help and readiness to accept any reasonable conditions were not part of them. It is so unfair on Jonathan’s person, the news-outlet should not go unpunished.

    • yanju omotodun

      March 6, 2017 at 4:20 pm

      Don’t forget that there is freedom of press and they also researched before they came up with the story. Truly Jonathan rejected their help.

  4. Balarabe musa

    March 6, 2017 at 8:30 pm

    It’s late to blame Jonathan for the chibok girls issue. All we need do is to praise baba buhari for his unrelenting effort to see that the girls are released. In no distant time, chibok girls will all be released.

    • JOHNSON PETER

      March 6, 2017 at 9:07 pm

      Mtchew. All is politics. There is nothing like kidnapp of any chibok girls. All is fake . No more release anywhere

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

fifteen − fourteen =