President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that the release of the over 200 abducted students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State, was a priority dear to his heart.
This came on a day the march to the Presidential Villa by #BringBackOurGirls, BBOG family was disrupted by heavily armed anti-riot police men, as all the roads leading to the villa in Abuja were blocked.
The Federal Government also, yesterday, sharply disagreed with former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, over a statement credited to him that the “Chibok girls may never return.”
President Jonathan, however, warned members of the opposition to stop politicizing the abduction saga and join forces with his government to rescue the girls.
Jonathan made the declaration at the National Conference on Environmental Security, Awareness and Enforcement in Nigeria, organized by the House of Representatives Committee on Environment at Transcorp Hilton,Abuja.
Although he did not give any time frame for the rescue of the girls or what his government was doing to address the problem, President Jonathan, who was represented by the Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam, assured that he would leave no stone unturned to ensure that the girls breathe air of freedom.
He said: “As an elected official, I want to solve the problem of the Chibok Girls. It is a priority on my-to-do list as President
“I refuse to pass it onto somebody else. Our security interests will not permit us to withhold legitimate actions that will bring back the girls. Our institutions won’t allow it either. And neither should our conscience”.
Urging members of the Boko Haram sect who abducted the female students in April to release them unconditionally, President Jonathan commended the BringBackOurGirls group for mounting intense pressure on the government for release of the students.
He however, admitted that rescuing the girls would not be easy but reassured that his government was taking every legal measure to get them out of the claws of the insurgents.
