Jonathan, on Friday night practically took over
investigations into the case of over 200 girls,
who were abducted from Government
Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on
April 15.
Just as her husband, President Goodluck
Jonathan, was setting up a fact-finding
committee on the matter, she presided over a
five-hour marathon meeting of stakeholders
that ended at about 11pm.
While announcing that the meeting would
continue on Sunday (today) by 4pm, the
President's wife summoned some individuals,
which she believed would assist in unravelling
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 were: two teachers from the school,
the chairman and secretary of the school's
Parents Teachers Association, two house
parents, two parents of the 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 match 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 match to Borno and ask the
governor to give us our children. We will
match to National Assembly to see the Senate
President and will also match to see the
President," she said.
She also announced the composition of a
committee saddled with the responsibility of
ensuring that those she summoned would
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 the wife
of the Senator and a 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.
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.
"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.
She stated 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 once any news of kidnapping was
reported.
"Governors are the security officers of their
states. During Obasanjo's time, anytime a
white man was 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 said.
Meanwhile, facts emerged yesterday as to the
reason behind the decision to leave
Government Secondary School, Chibok, open
on April 14, 2014, when over 200 schoolgirls
were abducted.
A state government official said the decision
to leave the school open was made after the
people of the town appealed to the Borno
State Governor, Kashim Shettima, not to move
their students to another town.
Pleading anonymity, he said the people of
Chibok, who argued that the town was safe
and in fact safer than Maiduguri or Biu the
two towns the governor was contemplating
moving the students to, told the governor that
they would be unhappy if anything happened
to their daughters due to the redeployment.
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