Friday 16 May 2014

President Jonathan Cancels Planned Visit To Chibok

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has cancelled his first visit to the village from which more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted by Islamist rebel group Boko Haram a month ago due to security fears, senior government sources said on Friday.

Jonathan will instead fly directly from the capital Abuja to Paris on Friday for a regional summit to discuss the Boko Haram insurgency and wider insecurity and will not now make a stop in the northeastern village of Chibok, said one of the sources.

"The president was planning to go but security advised otherwise on the visit," said the source of the last-minute decision to cancel the Chibok part of the trip.

Some Nigerians have criticized the government's initial response to the plight of the girls, who were abducted on April 14, and U.S. officials this week said the government had done too little to adapt to the threat posed by Boko Haram.

Jonathan asked France last week to arrange a security summit with neighbors Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin, and officials from the United States, Britain and the European Union to discuss a coordinated response. The summit will take place on Saturday.

Source:
Reuters

2 comments:

Don Okereke said...

Former President Bush will quietly fly into Iraq, Obama will secretly enter into Afghanistan without any publicity. A while ago, I think either Prince Williams or his brother fought in Afghanistan for some months without the Talibans knowing he was around. Hr was swiftly withdrawn when the information was (un)intentionally leaked.

Must the President's planned visit be publicized? Now we have a situation where the Nigerian President is completely cutoff, cannot visit a section of the country because his safety cannot be guaranteed. I think the President's handlers goofed again on this one. Bad PR!

Anonymous said...

Why is it "Former President" Bush, "Prince" William, "Nigerian President," but just "Obama?" Please don't follow the example of white media by calling President Obama out of the honor he has earned.