Parents of the abducted Chibok girls and members of the Bringbackourgirls movement on Thursday refused to leave when they were told that President Muhammadu Buhari would not meet with them. The protesters insisted on seeing the president, who had promised, on July 8, to rescue the abducted schoolgirls.
The president, whom Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, said was at a meeting at the time the protesters arrived at the villa, sent Aisha Alhassan, minister of women affairs, as his representative to them. But Alhassan took shots at the Chibok parents and the BBOG for not giving the government prior notice of their coming.
In response, Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education and leader of the BBOG, accused the minister of not being fair. “You have been very unfair to us,” she said. “I don’t understand why you can be chiding the parents and the movement. These parents were triggered by the words of the president who promised to rescue their daughters.” BBOG members and parents of the girls waiting for Buhari at the banquet hall of the presidential villa While she was still speaking, Shehu interrupted her to announce that the president would now meet the protesters.
Mohammed Monguno, national security adviser; Mohammed Dan Ali, minister of defence, and Gabriel Olonishakin, chief of defence staff were in the government delegation that received the group.
When the president eventually arrived, he ordered journalists out of the meeting. Shehu, who voiced the order, said the reason was because some “sensitive issues” were to be discussed. A galaxy of journalists who had turned up for the meeting thronged out of the banquet hall, venue of the meeting, in quick steps.