Chibok Community has described as “totally misleading and unjust” the
\nallegations that proponents of the #bringbackourgirls forced families of
\nthe abducted girls to boycott a planned visit to President Goodluck
\nJonathan.<\/p>\n
The community said the decision of the family of the abducted girls not to
\nattend the meeting with the President was purely based on the need to
\nreach out to other members and stakeholders to avoid any form of
\nsuspicion.<\/p>\n
As earlier reported by Pointblanknews.com, a new date of July 22 has been
\nset by the President to meet with the Chibok families.<\/p>\n
However, a statement issued in Abuja today, the Chibok Community said
\nwhile it takes full responsibility for the botched visit to the President,
\n“it is without foundation to hold citizens’ platform #bringbackourgirls
\nfor the decision of the 12 families.<\/p>\n
The statement reads:<\/p>\n
We the members of the Kibaku (Chibok) Community and representatives of the
\n12 fathers and 5 escaped girls who were hosted by Malala during her visit
\nto Nigeria hereby speak on their behalf to offer to Nigerians the facts as
\nthey are and to put the records straight and correct the erroneous
\nimpression making rounds in the media on the botched meeting with the
\nPresident:<\/p>\n
1. The logistics and meeting between the twelve (12) fathers and five (5)
\ngirls and Malala was facilitated by the Abuja Chibok Community and the
\nCitizens platform of BringBackOurGirls with our consent and on TRUST
\nconsidering their sustained and focused advocacy to Bring Back our
\ndaughters.<\/p>\n
2. These parents and escaped girls did not come to Abuja at the instance
\nof government or its representatives for a meeting with Mr. President but
\non the full understanding that they were coming to meet with Malala; an
\nadvocate of girl child education and most importantly one who has suffered
\na similar fate as their daughters\u2019.<\/p>\n
3. That in the course of the interactions with Malala, NEITHER the parents
\nnor the escaped girls asked for a meeting with the President or any
\ngovernment functionary, rather the narrative back home was to persistently
\nask why the President has not visited them in Chibok since the abduction.<\/p>\n
4. It is obvious that their numbers of 12 fathers and 5 girls is about 2%
\nof the parents of the 219 abducted girls still with their abductors and
\nthe 57 girls that escaped. Therefore, these parents DECIDED on their own
\naccord to review the announced visit, which they FIRST heard of like every
\nother person during Malala speech in Hilton.<\/p>\n
5. That consequent to their decision to revert to other family members in
\norder to incorporate every stakeholder on the matter as well as avoid
\ndiscord and suspicion on a change of plans from the original mission to
\nAbuja, they reached out to the Malala team and through them to the
\nPresidency; to request for a new date for an expanded and more
\nrepresentative meeting that has a legitimate mandate to meet with the
\nPresident.<\/p>\n
6. That their request is also in recognition of the huge opportunity of a
\nmeeting with the President for the first time and after over 90 days of
\nthe tragic abduction of their daughters, and therefore required better
\nconsultations, structure and formality as against an instant advocacy
\nrequest.<\/p>\n
7. That it is totally misleading, unjust and without foundation to hold
\nthe Citizens\u2019 platform BringBackOurGirls responsible for the decision made
\nby the 12 parents and our community. We therefore take full responsibility
\nfor our decision and welcome the formal invitation by the Presidency as a
\nfollow up to Malala\u2019s visit which we received this morning.<\/p>\n
Thank You.<\/p>\n
For Further Inquiries, contact the PRO on 08055606677<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chibok Community has described as “totally misleading and unjust” the allegations that proponents of the #bringbackourgirls forced families of the abducted girls to boycott a planned visit to President Goodluck…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n