FG issues warning to former president Goodluck Jonathan over Chibok girls' issue

Jonathan (top Left), Lai, Chibok girls

The Federal Government of Nigeria has issued a warning to former president Goodluck Jonathan over the abduction of the Chibok school girls.

A statement was released on Monday, March 6, 2017 by the minister of information, culture and tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says Jonathan must stop pointing finger on the issue of Chibok girls.

Lai Mohammed said because the Chibok girls were kidnapped during Jonathan's administration, so pointing fingers is pointless now and serves as a distraction for the current administration.

This warning comes after a report by a British newspaper which claimed that the British armed forces' proposed to help in the rescue mission of the girls but the bid was snubbed by then administration.

He also claimed that the past administration used the issue to play politics and permitting Boko Haram issue to escalate before the 2015 election.

The Minister said: ''While former President Jonathan reserves the right to defend his administration, he should not engage in finger-pointing by saying, in a statement, that 'some people who have obviously been playing politics with the issue of the Chibok girls will stop at nothing to further their interest."

''After the girls were kidnapped and the Jonathan's administration did nothing for all of 15 days or make any determined efforts to rescue them thereafter, our party, the then opposition APC, told the nation several times that the whole Boko Haram crisis was allowed to escalate by the PDP-controlled federal government so they can use it as a political tool ahead of the 2015 elections.

''In a statement on 8 Sept. 2014, we said: 'President Jonathan-PDP’s political manipulation of the Boko Haram has to be understood as part of its pooker-like calculus for clinging on to political power ahead of the 2015 elections.”

''Two-and-a-half years after that statement, we have been vindicated by the report that claimed President Jonathan rebuffed an attempt by the British government to help rescue the girls.

"We hope the former president will now refrain from stoking further controversy over the lingering abduction issue and allow the government of the day to focus on its ongoing negotiations to secure the release of the Chibok girls.”