by Emmanuel Chidiogo

 

In reaction to reports over an alleged N100 million given to parents of the abducted Chibok girls by President Goodluck Jonathan, the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA) has labelled the claims to be completely false.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the association said that its main objective was/is to secure the release of the remaining 219 abducted girls.

“It is with deep sadness that we are addressing you today to state that the claim is completely false, malicious and unfounded. Our primary priority has and remains the rescue of our abducted 219 daughters. Our Association has been at the forefront of calling for decisive measures to secure their release.

“We took the moral high ground as a Community Association that represents the Chibok people in Abuja to facilitate the recent visit of parents of our abducted daughters and 51 of the 57 that escaped. We helped make that visit possible despite our misgivings that it was a poor substitute to our expectation that Mr. President should have visited Chibok even before the visit of our people for a tragedy that is now 107 days old,” the statement read.

Addressing the rumour that the association had received money from the President, it said; “It is noteworthy that our primary and only goal is the safe return of the girls that are still in captivity. It is sad that we are losing sight of this to the allegation of sharing of money. We therefore want the world to understand that we, KADA stand by our earlier position and DID NOT DEMAND, RECEIVE OR HANDLE ANY FINANCES throughout the process of the visit”.

The group revealed that on the 22nd of July – the day the President met with parents of the abducted Chibok girls – the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties, Dan Adebiyi, visited the hotel where the parents were hosted and gave the sum of N200,000.00 each to 61 parents out of the 122 parents that came on the visit. 51 Parents were also given N100,000.00 each on the basis that the money given to him was not enough to go round at N200,000.00. The remaining 10 parents were not given any amount of money.

As for the money given to some parents back home in Chibok, the group said it was the sum of N1,000,000.00 given to them by the Hon. Member of the House of Reps representing Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency which was the source of the alleged N7,000.00 given to parents in Chibok that were not part of the visit.

The leadership of KADA reiterated the fact that no money was given to the group and that all allegations were completely baseless, false and malicious.