TheCable

Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, says Yusuf, the son of President Muhammadu Buhari, is better protected than students of Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state.

Omokri said this while responding to the claim of Buhari that his administration responded to the abduction of the Dapchi schoolgirls better than Jonathan did during the Chibok incident.

While Boko abducted 119 schoolgirls in Dapchi on February 19, 2018, the insurgents kidnapped 276 students in Chibok on April 14, 2014.

During his visit to Dapchi on Wednesday Buhari rated the response of his government better than that of his predecessor.

The president had said: “The federal government’s response to the unfortunate abduction of the schoolgirls is a clear departure from the insensitivity of the past administration which looked the other way while the Chibok girls were taken away in 2014 and held in captivity for over three years.”

Reacting in a statement, Omokri said contrary to Buhari’s claim, Jonathan called an emergency national security council meeting three days after the Chibok students were kidnapped.

He said instead of doing the same, Buhari cancelled the federal executive council meeting that was to hold after the Dapchi girls were kidnapped.

“Between a president who calls an emergency meeting after Chibok and a president who cancelled an important meeting so he could attend an economic conference, who can be described as looking the other way?” he asked.

“When Yusuf Buhari had an accident, President Buhari cancelled all his engagements and headed straight to the hospital. When the Dapchi girls were kidnapped, the same President Buhari carried on as usual and went to Kano to go and dance and socialise at a society wedding!”

Omokri also accused Buhari of undermining the Boko Haram war, faulting the negotiation with the sect.

He said: “Who knows whether it was monies allegedly paid as ransom to Boko Haram or individuals freed by the government (in swap of the released Chibok girls) that were used to facilitate the kidnap of the Dapchi Girls and the recent killings of United Nations staff in Rann.

“Again, three weeks ago, Chief Mike Okiro, the head of the police service commission, revealed that under President Muhammadu Buhari, 150,000 policemen are guarding ‘big men’ instead of performing core police duties.

“President Buhari’s son, Yusuf, alone had more guards guarding him than the guards attached to Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi at the time of the kidnapping, yet the president has the guts to say he handled Dapchi better than Jonathan handled Chibok.

“A serious president, knowing how vulnerable the north-east is would have sent these 150,000 policemen to guard schools in the north-east rather than send them out to guard APC big shots all over the country.”