Press statement from representatives of parents of Chibok
girls/survivors regarding the cancelled meeting between them and president
Jonathan .
1. The logistics and meeting between the twelve (12) fathers
and five (5) girls and Malala was facilitated by the Abuja Chibok Community and
the Citizens platform of BringBackOurGirls with our consent and on TRUST
considering their sustained and focused advocacy to Bring Back our daughters.
2. These parents and escaped girls did not come to Abuja at
the instance of government or its representatives for a meeting with Mr.
President but on the full understanding that they were coming to meet with
Malala; an advocate of girl child education and most importantly one who has
suffered a similar fate as their daughters’.
3. That in the course of the interactions with Malala,
NEITHER the parents nor the escaped girls asked for a meeting with the
President or any government functionary, rather the narrative back home was to
persistently ask why the President has not visited them in Chibok since the
abduction.
4. It is obvious that their numbers of 12 fathers and 5
girls is about 2% of the parents of the 219 abducted girls still with their
abductors and the 57 girls that escaped. Therefore, these parents DECIDED on
their own accord to review the announced visit, which they FIRST heard of like
every other person during Malala speech in Hilton.
5. That consequent to their decision to revert to other
family members in order to incorporate every stakeholder on the matter as well
as avoid discord and suspicion on a change of plans from the original mission
to Abuja, they reached out to the Malala team and through them to the
Presidency; to request for a new date for an expanded and more representative
meeting that has a legitimate mandate to meet with the President.
6. That their request is also in recognition of the huge
opportunity of a meeting with the President for the first time and after over
90 days of the tragic abduction of their daughters, and therefore required
better consultations, structure and formality as against an instant advocacy
request.
7. That it is totally misleading, unjust and without
foundation to hold the Citizens’ platform BringBackOurGirls responsible for the
decision made by the 12 parents and our community. We therefore take full
responsibility for our decision and welcome the formal invitation by the
Presidency as a follow up to Malala’s visit which we received this morning.
Thank You.
For Further Inquiries, contact the PRO on 08055606677.
Press statement from #bringbackourgirls conveners...
Response to Malicious Falsehood on Chibok Parents Visit to
President Goodluck Jonathan.
In the last 24hours, the #BringBackOurGirls Abuja family has
observed with consternation the escalation of the pattern of the campaign of
calumny by Government officials on our Citizens movement advocating for the
rescue of the 219 school girls of abducted from Chibok Girls Secondary School,
93 days ago. The latest in this trend is emanating from the visit facilitated for
the 11 parents and five escaped girls who were visiting Abuja to interact with
girl-child education advocate Malala Yousafzai..
During the public speech by Ms. Malala she declared that she
had received a promise by President Jonathan to meet with the 11 parents and
five girls. The movement was not aware and neither was it part of the
discussion of the said visit to our President.
However, at the BBOG daily sit out, our movement was
informed by the Chairman, Abuja Chibok community of the outcome of a meeting
held with officials of the Presidency in Malala’s suite (immediately after her
speech). He conveyed that they were informed at that meeting of a the
scheduling of the visit to the President for the eleven parents and five girls
at 4.00pm on Tuesday 15th July 2014.
Although some members of the movement were surprised at the
sudden invitation to meet with the President, our leadership concluded that
session by emphasizing that it was the absolute right of the Chibok community
to decide on the matter. It is instructive to note that majority of those at
the Unity Fountain on that day were visiting from the Chibok community and were
mostly the ones who vehemently expressed dismay at the information from the
Chairman. He then clarified on the manner the invitation was conveyed to him
and the parents at that meeting and reassured his community that he would
schedule an emergency meeting to discuss the matter further.
On Tuesday 15th July 2014, the leadership of our movement
were invited to a meeting by the Chibok Chairman and the leadership of their
development association with the eleven parents in attendance. At the meeting
they conveyed to us their unanimous decision to request for a rescheduling of
the Malala facilitated meeting with the President. They further informed us of
their intention to reach out to the Malala team and officials of the Presidency
to request for an expanded meeting within a sufficient time frame for necessary
planning with the rest of their community in Chibok.
We want to repeat for the avoidance of doubt that we are not
responsbile for the cancellation of the meeting with the President by the 11
Parents and 5 escaped girls from Chibok as been insinuated by some Government
officials.
As a movement, we wish to seize this opportunity to express
our gratitude to Malala who helped amplify the advocacy for concerted efforts
towards the rescue of our girls.
Meanwhile, it is pertinent to firmly state that since the
inception of our movement in April 2014, we have remained steadfast and adopted
all means and channels of civil engagement in the advocacy of our singular
issue, which is #BringBackOurGirls NOW and ALIVE
Signed
Hadiza Bala Usman & Obiageli Ezekwesili
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