The President has always been looking for this opportunity

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One hundred days after the abduction of the schools girls from Chibok, President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday met with parents of the abducted girls and the girls who successfully escaped from their captors.

The meeting which held at the banquet hall of the Presidential Villa kicked off at about 11:30am, behind closed doors as Journalists were asked to leave the hall.

It can be recalled that a meeting between the Presiedent and the parents of the abducted Chibok School girls slated for last week Tuesday had been cancelled at the last minute, when government officials went to convey the girls and their parents from the Hilton only to find they had returned to Chibok. The Presidency had further to this accused the bring back our gilrl campaigners of politicizing the campaign. ?

Briefing journalists after the meeting which lasted for almost two hours, Presidential Media Aide, Dr Rueben Abati said the meeting was interactive and everyone had the opportunity to say their minds while the President had the opportunity to listen firsthand to the different experiences of the various categories of people from Chibok who came to meet with him.

“The President has always been looking for this opportunity, before now he has met with various stake holders involved in the matter and now today they heard directly from the persons involved.

“Statements were made by all the categories of representatives ?and they spoke their minds they conveyed their feelings to Mr President and those who were involved and who managed to escape also gave an account of what they went through. Some of the girls who escaped on the road and some who said they escaped from Sambisa forest” Abati said.

The Presidential Spokesman said the President reassured them of the Federal Government’s determination and of his determination to ensure that the girls that are still in captivity are brought out alive adding that this is the main objective of the government.

He also used the opportunity to empathize with the parents and the girls, reassuring them that everything will be done to make things easier for them, particularly the ones that have already escaped and the ones that will soon be rescued.

“The President made it very clear that their education will not be truncated. Government will place these young ladies in other schools and the girls should not have any fears about their future , because every step will be taken to ensure that their rights to education s protected and guaranteed.?

“He assured them that their education will not in any way suffer and that after all of this has had a happy ending, because he believes he is convinced that evil will never prevail over good.?

“In human history there may be challenges but the forces of good have always prevailed. The President further assured them that after the battle has been won and the girls are safely back home, he together with the parents and the state government will focus on thereafter on development, on building Chibok, on rebuilding what the terrorist have tred to destroy and ensuring that every child either from Chibok or another part of the country has the opportunity to realize his r her dreams to the fullest.

“At the end of the meeting the parents were happy, they felt reassured, they thanked the President for the opportunity of this meeting. As you can see everybody is in very high spirit” Abati said.

Speaking on the authenticity of the identity of the parents of girls, the Presidential Spokesman said

“How I wish you had been inside the hall, the parents are still around and you can see that it was a full hall and they made it clear that they are representatives of other parents of what they call the karaoke development association and you can see ofcourse that they are more than two hundred people in the hall coming all the way from Chibok. This is quiet a large number, it is not likely that every parent or every child or everybody will be here and even at that we had over two hundred persons attending that meeting and that I think is representative enough”.

Also speaking to newsmen after the meeting the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) Mike Omeri who is also the Coordinator of the National Information Centre (NIC) told journalists that the Borno state had shown its strong commitment to work as well as wait on the govnment to do what is right towards rescuing their children.

Noting that it was not an easy thing to wait having known where the girls are, he added that caution must be applied in actions taken to ensure that the operational methods are not in anyway jeopardized.

” Parents and Nigerians have shown the indication to wait as the process continues and they have so far demonstrated that on the present and knowledge that at least they know that the government is trying its best to get the children out” he said.

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