President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan today revealed that since the abduction of the Chibok girls on
April 14th, he does not sleep with his two eyes closed anymore. The president
made this remark during the closing media conference of the just concluded
World Economic Forum Africa today.
"Let me
also use this unique opportunity to thank all of you who have shown commitment
and concern those of you in Nigeria and those of you outside this country to
continue to press on that these terrorists must bring back our girls.
And they
have no choice because I am quite pleased that the whole world is signing the
same message that they must bring back our girls. And there is no where they
will take this girls to, they have no hiding place, we must work with the
global community that is quite keen to make sure that we bring back this girls.
We plead with the parents as a father and the President of this country, I feel
pained and I don’t sleep with my two eyes closed and I will not sleep with my
two eyes closed until these girls are brought safely back to their parents. I
thank you for all the concern, for all the sentiments, communications you are
putting across to the rest of the world about what we are doing and of course
where the world wants to support us.” he said.
Meanwhile an
Amnesty International report released today, May 9th, states that the Nigerian
military was notified of the Boko Haram attack four hours before they arrived
the Government Girls Secondary School where they abducted the young girls.
According
to Makmid Kamara, the Nigeria researcher
for Amnesty International, indigenes of Chibok community who spoke with Amnesty
officials on the condition of anonymity said they had informed military
personnel in the area around 7pm that evening of a pending attack by Boko Haram
but no one mobilized for military backup until the Boko Haram men came calling
at 11.45pm
"We
received information and we spoke to a senior Nigerian military officer, who
spoke to us on condition of anonymity, that they had received intelligence reports,
even before local authorities and politicians got the information, that gunmen
were on their way to the Chibok town"
"When I
spoke to one of the senior military officials, they informed me that they [had]
informed their superiors, and requested for reinforcement. But the
reinforcement did not come." By the time the Boko Haram men came, only 17
soldiers were on ground and they could not withstand the emissaries the Islamic
sect men came with.
"Only
17 troops were there to face the attack and they were outgunned and
outnumbered. They had to flee for their lives together with some other
villagers who fled to the bush," Kamara said
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