Following President Jonathan’s cancelled meeting with the parents of the abducted Chibok girls and survivors, their representatives have released a statement in this regard.
Representatives of parents of the Chibok community in a statement released said:
"We, the members of the Kibaku (Chibok) Community and representatives of the 12 fathers and 5 escaped girls, who were hosted by Malala during her visit to Nigeria, hereby speak on their behalf to offer to Nigerians the facts as they are and to put the records straight and correct the erroneous impression making rounds in the media on the botched
meeting with the President."
The community alcalled the accusations by the Presidency, saying that the BringBackOurGirls movement had discouraged the parents from meeting with the President as unfounded and misleading.
Spokesperson of the Abuja Chibok Community, Dauda Iliya made the clarifications at a pressing on Wednesday in Abuja.
Read below:
1. The logistics and meeting between the twelve (12) fathers and
five (5) girls and Malala was facilitated by the Abuja Chibok Community
and the Citizens platform of BringBackOurGirls with our consent and on
TRUST considering their sustained and focused advocacy to Bring Back our
daughters.
2. These parents and escaped girls did not come to Abuja at the
instance of government or its representatives for a meeting with Mr.
President but on the full understanding that they were coming to meet
with Malala; an advocate of girl child education and most importantly
one who has suffered a similar fate as their daughters’.
3. That in the course of the interactions with Malala, NEITHER the
parents nor the escaped girls asked for a meeting with the President or
any government functionary, rather the narrative back home was to
persistently ask why the President has not visited them in Chibok since
the abduction.
4. It is obvious that their numbers of 12 fathers and 5 girls is
about 2% of the parents of the 219 abducted girls still with their
abductors and the 57 girls that escaped. Therefore, these parents
DECIDED on their own accord to review the announced visit, which they
FIRST heard of like every other person during Malala speech in Hilton.
5. That consequent to their decision to revert to other family
members in order to incorporate every stakeholder on the matter as well
as avoid discord and suspicion on a change of plans from the original
mission to Abuja, they reached out to the Malala team and through them
to the Presidency; to request for a new date for an expanded and more
representative meeting that has a legitimate mandate to meet with the
President.
6. That their request is also in recognition of the huge
opportunity of a meeting with the President for the first time and after
over 90 days of the tragic abduction of their daughters, and therefore
required better consultations, structure and formality as against an
instant advocacy request.
“It is totally misleading, unjust and without foundation to hold
the Citizens’ platform BringBackOurGirls or any individual responsible
for the decision made by the 12 parents and our community. We therefore
take full responsibility for our decision and welcome the formal
invitation by the President as a follow up to the Malala’s visit which
we received this morning.”
Iliya also said, “Ordinarily we would have wished that the meeting
was held in Chibok because the custom of Northern Nigeria and most
African countries is that you don’t go and ask for condolences, people
come to you to pay condolences but the things has become so complicate
that we are praying for the girls return after 92 days and we want the
government to tell us what they are doing for this we can wave our
rights and if the meeting is to be held in Abuja so be it.”
Thank You.
However, the #BringBackOurGirls group have also released a statement regarding the cancelled meeting.
Read the press statement from #BringBackOurGirls conveners below:
Response to Malicious Falsehood on Chibok Parents Visit to President Goodluck Jonathan
In the last 24hours, the #BringBackOurGirls Abuja family has
observed with consternation the escalation of the pattern of the
campaign of calumny by Government officials on our Citizens movement
advocating for the rescue of the 219 school girls of abducted from
Chibok Girls Secondary School, 93 days ago. The latest in this trend is
emanating from the visit facilitated for the 11 parents and five escaped
girls who were visiting Abuja to interact with girl-child education
advocate Malala Yousafzai.
During the public speech by Ms. Malala she declared that she had
received a promise by President Jonathan to meet with the 11 parents and
five girls. The movement was not aware and neither was it part of the
discussion of the said visit to our President.
However, at the BBOG daily sit out, our movement was informed by
the Chairman, Abuja Chibok community of the outcome of a meeting held
with officials of the Presidency in Malala’s suite (immediately after
her speech). He conveyed that they were informed at that meeting of a
the scheduling of the visit to the President for the eleven parents and
five girls at 4.00pm on Tuesday 15th July 2014.
Although some members of the movement were surprised at the sudden
invitation to meet with the President, our leadership concluded that
session by emphasizing that it was the absolute right of the Chibok
community to decide on the matter. It is instructive to note that
majority of those at the Unity Fountain on that day were visiting from
the Chibok community and were mostly the ones who vehemently expressed
dismay at the information from the Chairman. He then clarified on the
manner the invitation was conveyed to him and the parents at that
meeting and reassured his community that he would schedule an emergency
meeting to discuss the matter further.
On Tuesday 15th July 2014, the leadership of our movement were
invited to a meeting by the Chibok Chairman and the leadership of their
development association with the eleven parents in attendance. At the
meeting they conveyed to us their unanimous decision to request for a
rescheduling of the Malala facilitated meeting with the President. They
further informed us of their intention to reach out to the Malala team
and officials of the Presidency to request for an expanded meeting
within a sufficient time frame for necessary planning with the rest of
their community in Chibok.
We want to repeat for the avoidance of doubt that we are not
responsible for the cancellation of the meeting with the President by
the 11 Parents and 5 escaped girls from Chibok as been insinuated by
some Government officials
As a movement, we wish to seize this opportunity to express our
gratitude to Malala who helped amplify the advocacy for concerted
efforts towards the rescue of our girls.
Meanwhile, it is pertinent to firmly state that since the inception
of our movement in April 2014, we have remained steadfast and adopted
all means and channels of civil engagement in the advocacy of our
singular issue, which is #BringBackOurGirls NOW and ALIVE
Signed
Hadiza Bala Usman & Obiageli Ezekwesili
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