Presidency Denies Giving N100 Million Bribe to Chibok Parents

The Presidency tuesday denied the allegation that the federal government gave a N100-million bribe to the parents of the over 200 abducted female students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State when they visited President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday, last week.

The leader of the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners and former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, had tweeted that the federal government offered N100 million to the distressed Chibok parents, describing it as “filthy lucre” and “disgusting” via her twitter handle, @obyezeks.

But the Presidency last night reacted to the allegation as the Senior Personal Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, described the allegation as “wholesomely untrue and acts of blackmail against the federal government”.

Okupe told THISDAY that no money was given to the parents of the abducted Chibok girls when they visited President Jonathan.

According to Okupe, “The only thing government did to the parents of the Chibok girls was the provision of food and accommodation. The peddlers of this allegation are just mischievous and out to blackmail the federal government. Government did not offer any monetary gratification whatsoever.

“Why would the President offer monetary gratification to the parents? Government only provided food and accommodation to the parent and nothing more,” Okupe told THISDAY.

But already, it was gathered that the sharing formulae of the said money has caused some ripples among the parents of the Chibok girls, as some not only received far more than others, the Abuja-based stakeholders of the Chibok community are being accused of short-changing the parents.

According to sources, the said sum was given to the Abuja-based Chibok stakeholders, who helped to co-ordinate the visit of the parents.
The Chibok parents had visited the president Tuesday, last week after an earlier arrangement to see him penultimate Tuesday was bungled with the refusal of nine of the parents to see President Jonathan in the aftermath of the visit of 17-year-old Pakistani girl-child education activist, Malala Yousafzai, who extracted a promise from the president to see the Chibok parents.

The parents had through the Abuja stakeholders’ platform explained that their failure to see President Jonathan was as a result of their poor representation at the botched meeting, stressing that the parents who came to Abuja to meet with Malala did not have the mandate of the other parents to see the president.

Despite the explanation of the Abuja-based Chibok stakeholders, the Presidency had accused the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners of persuading the Chibok parents to shun the meeting with the president.
There has thus been a flurry of accusations between both the Chibok campaigners and the presidency..

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