Chibok Girls: Presidency Allegedly Dumps Fact-Finding Committee’s Report

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN IN WARM HANDSHAKE WITH BRIG-GEN. IBRAHIM SABO
PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN IN WARM HANDSHAKE WITH BRIG-GEN. IBRAHIM SABO (retd)

There are indications President Goodluck Jonathan may have dumped the report of the presidential fact finding committee on the abduction of over 200 girls of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram insurgents.

The president had on May 2, 2014 inaugurated the committee headed by Brig-Gen. Ibrahim Sabo (retd) to unravel the issues surrounding the abduction of the girls on the night of April 14.

The committee after carrying out its independent investigation, which included visiting Chibok, where the girls were abducted from and meeting relevant stakeholders in Borno, submitted its report on June 20 in Abuja to the president.

The committee arrived at the conclusion that 219 girls were still missing. According to the Sabo committee, a total of 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram while 57 of the girls had since escaped; leaving 219 girls unaccounted for.

However, three weeks after the submission of its report, the Presidency appears not to have made any move to implement the recommendations of the committee.

According to multiple sources, the Presidency was not favourably disposed to some of the issues raised in the report, which were deemed to be very controversial.

This is just as the Defence Headquarters, DHQ, said that it had not received any directives over the report or its implementation.

According to one of the source, “some of the issues as contained in that report are quite controversial and are considered by security agencies to be of security risk to the country. Mr. President and the security chiefs are not very disposed to considering some of those issues”.

The source said that there were still doubts as to some of the claims contained in the report and that government was not willing to implement its findings hastily.

Meanwhile, the Director of Defence Information, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, who disclosed that the military had not received any directives on the committee’s report, said that government had received the report did not mean that it had accepted it.

Speaking to Saturday Mirror, Olukolade said that implementation could only become possible if it had been accepted by government.

“Have you found out whether government has accepted the report?

“That it has received it does not mean that it has accepted it. It must pass through processes and become a white paper before it can be implemented”, Olukolade added.