Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state has tongue-lashed former President Goodluck Jonathan again following the latter’s response to his allegation concerning the abducted Chibok girls.
The governor spoke on Saturday, December 2, daring the former president to release the report of a fact-finding committee on the abduction of the over 200 students instead of blaming him.
Daily Trust reports that Shettima spoke through the Borno state commissioner in charge of education, Inuwa Kubo.
He also tasked Jonathan's media aides, including Ikechukwu Eze, to ask the former proesident why he deliberately hid the report of the presidential fact-finding committee he constituted on the Chibok girls incident and which submitted its report on Friday, June 20, 2014.
Kubo, who was among those questioned by the committee, released a statement to give more details to the issue that is now causing a rift between Shettima and Jonathan.
The statement read: For the purpose of records, Eze and his colleagues are pointing the wrong direction, they should ask their principal, President Goodluck Jonathan why he deliberately refused to make public, the report of a committee he constituted, inaugurated and received their findings on facts surrounding the Chibok abduction and who is to blame for it.
"To refresh their minds, on Tuesday, the 6th of May, 2014, President Jonathan had inaugurated multi-agency/stakeholder fact-finding committee under the chairmanship of Brig General Ibrahim Sabo (rtd), a one-time Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) and secretary of the committee was from the Niger Delta.
“President Jonathan single handedly selected all members of that committee which included representatives of the UN, ECOWAS, retired and security officers from the army, DSS and police; representatives of the Chibok community, local and international civil rights organisations, representatives of the National Council of Women Societies, the Nigeria Union of Journalists and some of his highly trusted associates.
“For nearly two months, the committee undertook thorough investigation that included forensic assessment of all documents on the entire issues, held meetings with parents of the schoolgirls, visited Chibok, met with the then Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, the director general of the DSS and the Inspector General of Police, all of whom were appointees of President Jonathan.
“The committee also met with officials of Borno government including myself and the school principal, the committee held meetings with heads of different security agencies in Borno state including security formations in charge of Chibok and after compiling their findings, the committee submitted its report directly to President Jonathan on Friday, the 20th of June, 2014 in Aso Rock.”
The statement continued: “What was he hiding from Nigerians? Here is another question, if the findings had indicted Governor Shettima or the Borno state government in anyway, does anyone really care to ask why Jonathan concealed that report given his open hatred for Shettima and the fact that the governor was in the opposition?”
According to Kubo Governor Shettima assisted Jonathan in the fight against Boko Haram and single-handedly approved the funding of civilian JTF without any support from the federal government.
The statement noted that Jonathan had repeatedly acknowledged the roles played by youth vigilantes in the success his administration recorded against insurgency.
It further said Shettima supported the federal government by funding security agencies and mobilizing community intelligence as publicly confirmed by the then director of operations at the Defence Headquarters, Major General Lawrence Ndugbane.
It said Jonathan got angry with Shettima because the governor spoke out of frustration by telling the world that the Nigerian military was poorly equipped to confront the insurgents, an claim that was later proven to be right.
“If Jonathan wasn't the one that constituted a fact-finding committee and received a report, no administration on earth would have upheld Shettima's innocence because Jonathan's men would have questioned the report of any other fact-finding committee,” he said.
Source: Naija.ng
ROSY CREST
Saturday, 2 December 2017