Some parents of the over 200 girls
abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014 are currently
reaching out to the Presidency for a meeting with President Muhammadu
Buhari that will not have anything to do with the BringBackOurGirls
campaigners, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.
This is coming at a time when security
operatives prevented the BBOG campaigners from gaining entrance to the
Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday and Thursday for a meeting with
Buhari.
A top Presidency source, who spoke on
the condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that while the
campaigners had been parading only two parents of the girls, the women
leader of the Chibok parents, Yana Galang, had expressed their desire to
meet with the President.
He said the woman told the Presidency
that the parents would wait for the first child of late Head of State,
Gen. Murtala Mohammed (retd.) and Chairman/Executive Officer of Murtala
Mohammed Foundation, Mrs. Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode, to return to the
country in September to facilitate the meeting.
The source said, “The Chibok parents’ women leader called and reiterated their commitment to work with the government.
“She said that they are looking forward
to a meeting with the President or with government officials, which has
nothing to do with the BBOG campaign.
“She said they will wait until Mrs.
Muhammed-Oyebode returns to the country at the beginning of next month,
so she can facilitate this.”
He added that while the campaigners have
been parading the two Chibok families based in Abuja and another based
in Minna, Niger State, none of those based in Chibok have attended their
rallies.
He said Galang also reported that one of
the parents who have been attending the rallies, Esther Yakubu, called
and scolded her about recent media comments credited to her.
Galang had in the report said, “We
(Chibok parents) do not want to do anything that the government will not
be happy about. We are not after any organisation that is against any
party or religion, and we are supporting the Federal Government to help
us release our girls.”
He said they wanted her to publish a retraction which she said she would not do.
Another source had earlier told our
correspondent that Buhari refused to meet with BBOG campaigners because
of Dr. Oby Ezekwesili’s alleged rudeness to him when he met them on
January 14.
He said with what happened at that
meeting, nobody could stick out his or her neck again to convince the
President to meet with them.
He said, “You will recall that at the
last meeting, the President sent a minister and some aides to meet with
them at the old Banquet Hall.
“At a point, the campaigners insisted
that they must meet the President and no other person. So some of us
went to meet the President and persuaded him to meet them which he did.
“Surprisingly, the former minister
(Ezekwesili) was rude to President Buhari during the meeting that was
held behind closed doors by telling him that she was not satisfied with
him.”
But the BBOG spokesman, Abubakar
Abudullahi, said the coalition has no control over the parents of the
kidnapped schoolgirls, noting that they were free to see the president
without the group.
“We don’t have control over the Chibok
parents and they are free to see the president or whoever they wanted to
see; we are all working for the same goal. That is all I have to say
about it,” he said in a phone conversation on Friday.
It will be recalled that the Senior
Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu,
had said on Thursday that the Federal Government has not given up on the
abducted girls.
He said Buhari’s heart was with the girls and their parents and that efforts to find them would continue.
The presidential spokesman said, “The
President’s heart is with the Chibok Girls and their parents. He
understands their feelings. The government has not given up on the
missing girls. Efforts to find them will continue.
“So far, the country’s gallant and
re-energised military has taken back more than 20,000 citizens held
hostage by the terrorists.”
Credit: Punch
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