Chibok Parents: Presidential C'ttee’s Decision to Shun Us was an Insult

The people of Chibok, including the traumatised parents of over 200 schoolgirls abducted from a secondary school in their community on April 14, have described the decision by the presidential fact-finding committee on the kidnapping of the girls to shun Chibok as nothing short of irresponsibility and an insult to their sensibility as human beings and citizens of Nigeria.

The community said with the action of the committee, the saying that thunder does not strike twice has been proven wrong.
They said it was a pity that they were first insulted by President Goodluck Jonathan even after his belated plan to visit them had to be shelved and now a committee which was set up to find ways of identifying the reason behind the abducted schoolgirls found reason to equally shun Chibok.

The parents, who expressed their displeasure over what they called the refusal of the committee's to visit Chibok, told reporters yesterday in Maiduguri that the committee work would be incomplete without seeing the scene of the April 14 attack and interacting with them.

“They told us they were coming on Tuesday and we were waiting for them. All the parents of the (abducted) girls with other community leaders gathered in front of the school (GSS) waiting for them but they refused to come. We thought they had postponed the visit and interaction with us till Wednesday and we waited again but they still didn't come,” Maina Chibok, one of the parents, said on the phone.

He expressed concerned over the treatment of the abduction issue, insisting that it was regrettable.
“We learnt they met elders of the Borno emirate and other people in Maiduguri but what do these people know about our case? Why is government afraid to come to Chibok? What kind of thing is the committee finding in Maiduguri and not in our town where our daughters were kidnapped?”, he queried.

Lucas Adams, a resident, said the committee should have spent more time in Chibok if it was determined to unravel the cause of the abduction, saying: “The committee should have had access to security personnel to provide security if members were scared of the area.”

Chairman of the committee, Maj-Gen. Ibrahim Sabo (rtd), had on Friday at the Maiduguri Government House council chamber said the committee was rounding off its interaction with stakeholders on the Chibok abduction by meeting the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima.

He said the committee had interacted with military officers and heads of security agencies in the state, Borno elders, the principal of GSS, Chibok, and the management of the school, among others.
But it never went to Chibok as promised.

Source: Thisday