Angry reactions have continued to trail President Goodluck Jonathan’s last minute cancellation of a trip to Chibok, where over 200 female students of the Government Girls’ Secondary School, GGSS, were abducted last month by Boko Haram insurgents.
Parents of the abducted girls who had lined up waiting to receive President Jonathan on his sympathy visit to Chibok and the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, who was said to have hurriedly returned from a trip along with some of his aides ended up frustrated.
Although there was no official reaction from the State government over the development, a close associate of Governor Shettima who pleaded anonymity said that the state government had made preparations about the aborted visit which the presidency was said to have wanted unannounced.
Apart from the parents of the abducted schoolgirls, traditional rulers and other state government officials had gathered in Chibok in the morning to welcome the President, but end up frustrated after waiting for some hours under the hot sun before they were later informed that the visit had been cancelled.
One of the parents of the abducted schoolgirls, Amos Pagu told our correspondent in a telephone conversation that the parents were really not disappointed by the cancellation of the visit, because they have already lost confidence in the government of the day for not rescuing our innocent daughters who were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists over a month ago.
“We have now put our faith in God Almighty whom we believe is the only one that will rescue our daughters.’’
However, the trip was said to have been cancelled due to concerns about unfavourable security reports.
Although the Presidency had denied that the President had planned to visit Chibok, very reliable security officials told our correspondent that an ‘’advance team’’ from the Presidency made up mainly security details had left Abuja for both Maiduguri and Chibok before the abrupt cancellation of the trip.
Presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, insisted however, that the president never planned to visit Chibok yesterday.
Abati, said in a series of tweets on his twitter handle @abati1990 that the planned visit was a hoax.
“Every official trip by the President is pre-announced. There was no announcement of the president’s trip to chibok. Please ignore the runour,” he wrote.
His tweets came several minutes after a presidency source told the BBC that the trip was shelved for security reasons.
Also, the Special Adviser to the President, Dr. Doyin Okupe, told the CNN on Friday that Nigeria had taken a decision to rescue the over 200 Chibok school girls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents on April 14, 2014 and denied that the President aborted the trip for security reasons and said that Jonathan could still visit Chibok on his return from France.
However, Debo Adeniran, of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders said on Friday that ”If, as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he is afraid to visit Chibok because of security fears, he is simply telling the hapless people in the northeast that he cannot protect them and they should resign themselves to their fate.”
Lai Mohammed, spokesman for the main opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, said Jonathan had “lost all direction” and the cancellation was “a good example of his government’s policy indecision”.
”He has clearly abandoned the Nigerian people and Nigerians are conscious of this. Obama went to Afghanistan, so did Bush. I think Jonathan lacks good advisers.
“Jonathan would have used the opportunity of the visit to the troubled Borno State, particularly the Chibok town, to see things for himself, the level of carnage carried out by the insurgents and hear from eye witnesses.
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