News: Outrage as President Jonathan aborts Chibok trip

Angry reactions yesterday trailed President Goodluck Jonathan’s last minute cancellation of a trip to Chibok, where over 200 female students of the Government Girls’ Secondary School, GGSS, were abducted last month by Boko Haram insurgents. Parents of the abducted girls who had lined up waiting to receive President Jonathan on his sympathy visit to Chibok, ended up frustrated, as their ‘’August visitor’’ never turned up.Although there was no official reaction from the Borno State government over the development, a close associate of Governor Kashim Shettima who pleaded anonymity said that although there was no official communication between the state government and the presidency that Jonathan would visit Borno or Chibok yesterday, the state government had made preparations about the aborted visit of Mr. President, aware of the trip which the presidency was said to have wanted unannounced.Apart from the parents of the abducted schoolgirls, traditional rulers and other officials state government officials had gathered in Chibok in the morning to welcome the President, but end up frustrated after waiting for some hours under the hot sun. They were later informed that the visit had been cancelled.
One of the parents, Mr. Amos Pagu said in a telephone interview with Saturday Vanguard that, “we are not disappointed by the cancellation of the visit, because, already we parents of the missing school girls have lost confidence in the government of the day for not rescuing our innocent daughters who were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists over a month ago.“We have now put our faith in God Almighty whom we believe is the only one that will rescue our daughters.’’ However, the trip was said to have been cancelled due to concerns about unfavourable security reports.