Abducted girls: Patience Jonathan takes over investigation

Wife of the President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, on Friday night practically took over investigation into the case of girls who were abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 15.


While President Goodluck Jonathan, was setting up a fact-finding committee on the matter, she was presiding over a five-hour marathon meeting of stakeholders that ended at about 11pm.

While adjourning the meeting to Sunday, the President’s wife summoned some individuals which she believed would assist in unraveling the circumstances leading to the girls’ abduction and their whereabouts.

Among those summoned were the Borno State Commissioner of Police, the state Commissioner for Education, the chairman of the local government, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Chibok, the wife of the village head, the school principal and the school gateman.

Others are at least two teachers from the school, the chairman and secretary of the school’s Parents Teachers Association, two house parents, two parents of missing children, as well as two parents whose children had returned home.

Mrs. Jonathan said if the schoolgirls were not found by Sunday, she would not hesitate to lead women on a protest march to Maiduguri to demand for their whereabouts from the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima.

“By Sunday, we must have our children. If not, we will march to Borno State and ask the governor to give us our children. We will march to National Assembly to see the Senate President and will also march to see the President,” she said.

She also announced the composition of a committee saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that those she summoned attend the Sunday meeting.

The committee which she said would be chaired by the wife of Borno State governor who was absent at the meeting, has wife of the Senator and member of the House of Representatives from the affected constituency, wife of the minister from Borno State and wife of the chairman of the affected local government area as members.

Mrs. Jonathan said she had been dealing with the issue secretly since the news of the abduction broke and had decided to come to the open.

She said, “Within three days, something will happen. We will get to the root of the matter. I don’t come out and go back empty. I have come out and something must happen..

“We will not fold our hands and see our children kidnapped, our husbands, sons, daughters also being killed. We should be more concerned.

“We will form a committee to call on appropriate persons to come and answer questions. They must answer us. If they say they won’t answer us, then they should go and bring our children. The demonstration will take place at their doorsteps.

“When they answer us, we can then approach our neighbours, the President, Senate President and others to help us.

“I have been dealing with this secretly but you have taken me to the market square. There is no more hiding.”

Mrs. Jonathan said as the chief security officers of their states, state governors must be ready to take the heat for any act of insecurity in their domain.

He recalled that during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the former President could call her husband who was the Bayelsa State governor in the middle of the night if any news of kidnapping was reported.

“Governors are the security officers of their states. During Obasanjo’s time, anytime an oyinbo is kidnapped in Bayelsa state, he would call the governor (Jonathan) at 2am and give him 24 hours to produce the kidnapped person.

“We now know who to ask for our children. We don’t need to embark on demonstrations from state to state,” she declared.

Meanwhile, the Head of the National Office, West African Examination Council, Mr. Charles Eguridu, who was invited to the Friday meeting handed over details, including the full names, photographs and ages of the candidates who registered for the ongoing examination in the school to the President’s wife.

While responding to questions raised on how many girls could have been abducted, Eguridu said a total of 530 candidates -135 male and 396 female- registered and were taking part in the examination at the time of the incident.

He explained that after the abduction, 189 candidates were relocated to Uba where they are currently continuing with their examination.

He said his office was currently trying to find out how many male and female candidates make up the 189 that are continuing with their examination.

He said that computation would likely lead to the exact number of female candidates who have been abducted by the insurgents.

He said although the school was a girls school in WAEC’s records, the examination body was told that the school is now a mixed institution although he was yet to receive a formal request for the change.

He added that WAEC has no mandate to change the status of the school without the approval of the Ministry of Education in that state.

He thereafter proceeded to present to the President’s wife the photographs and names of the 530 candidates, their dates of birth and their ages as well as a list containing their names, centre number, gender, and their dates of birth.

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