We stand by Buhari’s statement on Chibok girls –Presidency

The Presidency says it stands by President Muhammadu Buhari’s last statement on the over 200 girls abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State in 2014. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said in an interview with our correspondent on Monday the Presidency had not changed its position on the matter. Adesina said, “We stand by what the President said on the matter the last time he spoke on it, especially during the last media chat. “Whenever there is a development on the matter, we will make it known to Nigerians.” Buhari had during his presidential media chat on December 30, 2015 admitted that none of the nation’s security agencies had any information on the whereabouts of the girls, saying that was “the honest truth”. Buhari said, “There is no such intelligence reports of where those girls are physically are and in what condition they are in, but what we believe in from our intelligence is that they (their abductors) keep shifting them around so that they are not taken by a surprise until the girls are freed, and they are not being kept in one place.” He reiterated that the Federal Government would negotiate with any credible leadership of the sect that could tell him the whereabouts of the girls. The girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram from Government Secondary School, Chibok in April 2014 during the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Buhari had in his inaugural address on May 29 shortly after taking over from Jonathan said the terrorism war could never be said to have been won without rescuing the Chibok girls. Meanwhile, the acting Director, Defence Information, Brig.- Gen. Rabe Abubakar, said the focus of the military was to defeat Boko Haram. He said that the military was determined to ensure that those being held captive by the terrorists, not only the Chibok girls, were released. Abubakar said, “Nigerians and our foreign partners know the unprecedented success we have recorded in recent time in the campaign against the insurgency in the North-East. “Many people have been rescued. We are determined to ensure that those being held captive, not only the Chibok girls, are all released. Our focus is to ensure that we do our best in the fight insurgency.”