President Muhammadu Buhari has informed the parents of the abducted Chibok girls that he does not have credible intelligence on the location of their daughters.
Over 100 Chibok parents alongside members of the #BringBackOurGirls advocacy movement, marched to the presidential villa on Thursday, to meet President Muhammadu Buhari, to ascertain the status of the efforts to rescue the missing girls.
Although the President was initially unavailable to meet with them, he was forced to show up after they insisted on seeing him.
According to Enough Is Enough Nigeria, an advocacy group for good governance and citizen engagement, the President wasn’t as receptive of the Chibok parents as he was, during the last meeting of July 8, 2015.
EiE, through its Twitter handle, alleged that the President got angry and stormed out of the hall after addressing the Chibok parents.
#BBOGReengagesPMB: @MBuhari was visibly angry. He spoke in English & Hausa. Stormed out of the hall. No pictures or time spent with parents.
— EiE Nigeria (@EiENigeria) January 14, 2016
Mr @MBuhari missed a golden opportunity to connect ’emotionally’ with the #ChibokParents. #BBOGReengagesPMB The demand continues…
— EiE Nigeria (@EiENigeria) January 14, 2016
Meanwhile, Aisha Yesufu, one of the leaders of the #BBOG movement revealed to The Cable that Buhari indeed walked out after concluding his speech.
“The president said he had no credible intelligence on the missing Chibok girls. He said he is somebody who does not lie. And he will not start by lying. We are not saying the president should lie, but when you are saying there is no credible intelligence, and that the girls are scattered and married off; then how do we know? These are two things.”
“And he said it (abduction of the Chibok girls) happened during the last administration. I find it very worrisome. I remember one of the parents asked what he meant by saying it happened in the last administration. Does it mean the girls will not be rescued?”
“I would like the president to know that there is no vacuum in government. That it happened during the last administration is not an excuse. It is duty of the Nigerian government to ensure that the Chibok girls are rescued. It is their right and not a privilege. And where we have failed there is a need for us to apologise.”
“As for me, I was terribly sad and shocked because the president did not look at the parents to say ‘we are sorry as a nation for your children who have been abducted for 21 months’.”
“The president finished his speech, he dropped the microphone and walked out. And I thought that could have been a moment for him to connect with the parents. We will continue our campaign. We do not care who the head of the government is. It is duty of the Nigerian government to rescue the Chibok and we will continue making our demands. The government should stop the excuses.”
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