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Presidency's largess brought reproach, dishonor to us - Chibok community members
31/07/2014 08:14
The Chibok community has said that while it appreciated the efforts of the Presidency to alleviate the suffering of the people in the community, especially after more than 200 of its schoolgirls were abducted from the Government Secondary School in the community on April 14, the approach of the Presidency seems to have done more harm than good.
It said, "The approach the Presidency has adopted has brought reproach and dishonor to our community in the eyes of the public that has supported us since the abduction of our daughters.”
This was contained in a press statement by the Kibaku Area Development Association of the Chibok community, in which the community members explained that the Presidency shared N22.4million to the Chibok parents and the escaped girls that held a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on July 22,2014, contrary to reports that N100m was shared to the recipients.
The leaders of the community also sought to clarify their role in the sharing of the largess, saying it did not handle or receive any money from the Presidency, talk less of being in charge of the sharing.
Dauda Ilya, Spokesman for the Abuja, on Wednesday, in Abuja, explained that 63 individuals comprising 51 escaped girls were given N100,000 each, 51 parents equally received N100,000 each and another 61 parents got N200,000 each.
He added that 10 parents out of the 122 who took part in the meeting with the president, in fact, did not receive any money.
It said, “On the night of July 22, 2014 at about midnight, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties who had been co-ordinating the visit on the side of the Presidency, visited the hotel and told the 51 escaped girls who came that the Presidency sent them a token of N100,000 each and accordingly gave them the said sum without prior discussion with any KADA official or any other person in the community.
“He equally gave the sum of N200,000 each to 61 parents out of the 122 parents that came on the visit. Fifty one parents were given N100,000 each on the basis that the money given to him was not enough to go round at N200,000. The remaining 10 parents were not given any amount of money.
“As for the money given to some parents back home in Chibok, it was the sum of N1m given to them by the member of the House of Reps representing Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency which is the source of the alleged N7,000.00 given to parents in Chibok that were not part of the visit.
”Our primary priority has and remains the rescue of our abducted 219 daughters. Our Association has been at the forefront of calling for decisive measures to secure their release.
“We took the moral high ground as a Community Association that represents the Chibok people in Abuja to facilitate the recent visit of parents of our abducted daughters and 51 of the 57 that escaped.
“We helped make that visit possible despite our misgivings that it was a poor substitute to our expectation that Mr. President should have visited Chibok even before the visit of our people for a tragedy that is now 107 days old.”
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