President Goodluck Jonathan has said that it is not necessary for him to visit Chibok, Borno State community where about 270 schoolgirls were abducted on April 14. Jonathan was responding to a question on Saturday during a press conference held at Elysee Palace in Paris to announce the conclusions of the Regional Summit on Security in Nigeria
The president asserted that the girls were not held in Chibok, saying his going there would not solve any problem. Jonathan, who said he was interested in locating and rescuing the girls, maintained that he was not averse to visiting bomb explosion scenes as he had done so in the past, saying the case of Chibok was different as there was nobody in the school where the girls were abducted.
“These girls are not held in Chibok. Sometime, people want the president to go to Chibok. If the President goes to Chibok today, it does not solve any problem. The problem facing the president and indeed the Nigerian government is how to get these girls from wherever they are,” he said. The president, who also noted that the service chiefs had already visited Chibok, said that the Nigerian military were being trained to develop their capacity to adequately deal with terrorism,
He said Nigeria was facing security challenges because terrorism was a relatively new phenomenon in the country. Jonathan also claimed that the allegation of misappropriation of funds against the military was exaggerated. He, however, noted that administrative lapses might be one of the factors responsible for the inadequate funding of the war against terrorism in the country.