Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Chairman of the Northern Elders Council (NEC) has said that President Goodluck Jonathan refused to visit Chibok because it was too risky for the president at that time.
Yakassai while speaking in a popular Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Hausa programme “Hannu da Yawa” said “why I think the President’s decision not to visit the area is not bad is because we were all aware of the deteriorating level of insecurity in that part of the country,” pointing out that, “we all know it was too risky for the President to visit Chibok at that time.”
“The President is not a soldier. Soldiers are the people that should have been sent there. If I was the President and such an incident occurred, the right thing for me to do was to send soldiers and to be frank, our soldiers are doing their best.”
“We hear on radio and read in newspapers how soldiers are being killed but yet they are doing their best. I don’t know what is happening; the Minister of Defence, Aliyu Gusau is a northerner, the National Security Adviser (NSA) is a northerner, the Inspector General of Police is a northerner, the Chief of Defence Staff is a northerner.”
“All Nigerian soldiers are under his orders, if all these people cannot address the problems, how would it be easy for the President to do it? Don’t forget that suicide bombers are now experts, so what will happen if they ambush the President and something bad happened to him? Do you think his people will accept that? Except if people want the country to return to the Niger Delta militant era.”
In April this year, over 200 girls were abducted in Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok by members of the Boko Haram Sect. While some of the girls escaped, most of them are still in captivity.