Chibok Community Absolves #Bringbackourgirls From Botched Presidential Visit

Chibok Community has described as “totally misleading and unjust” the

allegations that proponents of the #bringbackourgirls forced families of

the abducted girls to boycott a planned visit to President Goodluck

Jonathan. The community said the decision of the family of the abducted girls not to

attend the meeting with the President was purely based on the need to

reach out to other members and stakeholders to avoid any form of

suspicion. As earlier reported by Pointblanknews.com, a new date of July 22 has been

set by the President to meet with the Chibok families.

However, a statement issued in Abuja today, the Chibok Community said

while it takes full responsibility for the botched visit to the President,

“it is without foundation to hold citizens' platform #bringbackourgirls

for the decision of the 12 families. The statement reads: 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: 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. 7. That it is totally misleading, unjust and without foundation to hold

the Citizens' platform BringBackOurGirls 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 Presidency as a

follow up to Malala's visit which we received this morning.

Thank You. For Further Inquiries, contact the PRO on 08055606677