Former President Goodluck Jonathan, has said that he cannot
take responsibility for the abduction of the Chibok girls in April 2014 as he
does not control the terrorist group.
Recall that Boko Haram members stormed the Government Girls
Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14th 2014 and abducted over 200
girls.
Speaking in an interview with BBC on Friday November 30th,
Jonathan said he did all that was expected of any responsible government to do
immediately the girls were abducted.
"Immediately the Chibok [schoolgirls] issue came up, we
expected Nigerians to be concerned. ‘How do we get these girls out?’ Within a
couple of days, we saw people going to the US with Bring Back Our Girls
placards. How? Why? And of course, Mrs Obama received one of those placards. I
cannot take responsibility for that abduction. I don’t control Boko Haram. They
are criminals.
"But as a president, of course you know it’s not the
president that goes to the fields. You have security and intelligence officers
that do the work. Let me admit that yes, maybe they do their best, but their
best was not good enough for us to recover the girls. That I cannot say I am
right or I am wrong. That does not mean I am trying to remove myself from any
blame. Yes I may not be blamed for the action, but I could be blamed that my
security and intelligence systems were not strong enough to be able to rescue
the girls.
"If I as a politician, will tell the whole world that
my political ambition fir any single office is not worth the blood of any
Nigerian, how will I be happy that girls have been kidnapped? I’m not that kind
of character."
