Chibok: Tragedy continues as 11 parents die in 3 months

• I’ll visit community, Jonathan promises at special meeting

Tragedy continues to befall families of schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram militants in April as a total of 11 parents of the affected girls have died in the last three months.
This is coming at a time when President Goodluck Jonathan met parents and elders of  the Chibok community, Borno State in Abuja yesterday, for the first time since over 200 schoolgirls were abducted.
Revealling the death of 11 parents to Associated Press yesterday, Chibok community leaders Pogu Bitrus, who provided their names said: “One father of two of the girls kidnapped just went into coma and kept repeating the name of his daughters, until life left him.”

Also a health worker, who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisal by the terrorists.said seven fathers of kidnapped girls were among 51 bodies brought to Chibok hospital after an attack on the nearby village of Kautakari this month.
Also, four more parents have died of heart failure, high blood pressure and other illnesses that the community blamed on trauma due to the mass abduction 90 days ago.
In the meeting with the Chibok delegates, the President assured the delegates which included 51 escaped female students of Government Girls Secondary School, that he would visit Chibok when the rest of the schoolgirls regain their freedom.
He urged the parents of the abducted schoolgirls not to despair, that their girls will be brought back alive and return them safely to their parents.
Jonathan gave the assurance during a closed-door interactive session with the parents, escaped girls and community/opinion leaders of Chibok. The President reassured the community that his administration was doing everything to rescue the over 200 girls, “Anyone who gives you the impression that we are aloof and that we are not doing what we are supposed to do to get the girls out is not being truthful.
“Our commitment is not just to get the girls out, it is also to rout Boko Haram completely from Nigeria. But we are very, very mindful of the safety of the girls. We want to return them all alive to their parents. If they are killed in any rescue effort, then we have achieved nothing”, he said.
President Jonathan told the delegation at the meeting which was also attended by Governors Kashim Shettima of Borno State and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State  as well as Senate President David Mark that although he was yet to visit Chibok in the aftermath of the abductions, his heart was constantly with the traumatized parents and people, and his desire was to visit them when their daughters have been freed and they can receive him with smiling faces of joy, rather than with tears of anguish.
“Our duty now is to take all relevant steps to recover our girls alive and our primary interest is getting them out as safely as possible. I will not want to say much, but we are doing everything humanly possible to get the girls out.
“This not the time for talking much. This is the time for action. We will get to the time that we will tell stories. We will get to the time that we will celebrate and I assure you that, by God’s grace,  that time will come soon,” Jonathan said.
Responding to appeals from the community leaders for more help in overcoming some of the challenges imposed on Chibok and neighbouring communities by the Boko Haram insurgency, the President said that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and federal medical agencies will intensify their efforts to provide them with additional relief aid and assistance.
He also assured them that Chibok and other communities in the three North-eastern states most affected by the insurgency will be the first beneficiaries of the Victims’ Support Fund, the Presidential Initiative for the North-East, the Safe Schools Initiative and other developmental programmes which the Federal Government is evolving to address the damage, losses, setbacks, economic and social dislocations occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“We solicit your maximum cooperation. Let us work together. Evil can never overcome good. We will surely overcome Boko Haram,”  he said.
In his remarks, Governor Shettima called for more sobriety, reflection and unity of purpose in the fight against terrorism in the country. He pledged that Borno will give the President the fullest support in addressing the problems caused by Boko Haram.
Dr. Pogu Bitrus presented the Chibok community’s address to the President.
At the meeting were National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, ministers of Information, Labaran Maku, Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, Interior, Abba Moro, Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe, among other ministers.
Speaking on the influx of displaced persons in his state, Yuguda disclosed that Bauchi was hosting over two million ‎persons, saying this was putting a strain on its resources.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Dr. Reuben Abati, described the meeting as ‎successful and a good development as Jonathan heard directly from the persons involved.