TheCable

President Goodluck Jonathan held a closed-door meeting with the schoolgirls that escaped from Boko Haram and some parents of those still in captivity.

There had been controversy over the meeting, with the original one cancelled last week amid claims that the Chibok community objected to the manner of invitation.

At the meeting on Tuesday, he reiterated his promise to rescue the over 200 girls still with the insurgents and also vowed to rebuild the Chibok community which has been devastated by the terrorists.

It has also emerged that over 2million refugees now live in Bauchi, having fled from the neighbouring states affected by the insurgency.

The meeting, which was not covered by the media, was held at the banquet hall of the Presidential Villa.

Jonathan met with them in four categories: 51 escapees, their parents, parents of those still missing and the leaders of the community.

Presidential spokesman Rueben Abati said it was a successful and good development “as the president heard directly from the persons involved”.

He said statements were made by all the representatives of people.

“They spoke their minds and conveyed their feelings to the President. The girls who escaped also gave an account of what they went through. Mr. President reassured them of the federal government’s determination and his own personal determination to ensure that the girls that are still in captivity are brought out alive. That is the main objective of the government.

“Mr. President also used the opportunity to empathise with the parents and the girls and to reassure them that everything will be done to make things easier for them, especially those who have escaped and the ones that will also be rescued, that their education will not in any way suffer and he is convinced that evil will never prevail over good.

“Mr. President further assured that after the battle has been won and the girls are brought back home, he, together with the parents and the state government will focus on development, on building Chibok, on building all that the terrorists had destroyed and on ensuring that every child, either in Chibok or in any other part of the country, has his/her dream realised,” Abati said.

The parents of the Chibok girls were happy at the end of the meeting and everyone was  in high spirit, he added.

Jonathan “made it clear that their education won’t be truncated”, Abati further said, revealing that the government is making efforts to place these young girls in other schools “to protect their right to education”.

He denied allegations that those who attended were not the real parents of the girls.

“The parents made it clear that they are representatives of other parents. And you can see that we have over 200 people coming from Chibok.

“The girls spoke in great details about their experiences and their observations. It was an open and frank session in which everybody expressed their minds,” he said.

At the meeting were Senate President David Mark, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, and national security adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.

Also in attendance were finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and education minister Ibrahim Shekarau.

Yuguda said the refugee situation was a major challenge for his state.

“It’s been a major challenge. Bauchi is surrounded by all the states having security challenges and many refugees have been pouring into it. Presently we have over two million refugees in Bauchi‎ but the good news is that we have been able to settle them down.

“No refugee is in any camp. We have given them land to settle and have provided shelter for them. We have tried our best to provide water and some basic facilities so that they can start life over again. It’s not been easy, our resources are over stretched, the little we have has to be shared with the refugees,” he said.