Former President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed why he can’t be blamed for the actual abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram.
Jonathan clarified that he could not take direct responsibility for the incident, as he did not control the terrorist group.
He made the assertion in an interview shared on X (formerly Twitter).
He, however, acknowledged his role as President and pointed up that security and intelligence officers were responsible for conducting fieldwork.
He admitted that despite their best efforts, the officials fell short of recovering the abducted girls.
While he asserted that he couldn’t be blamed for the actual abduction, he accepted responsibility for the failure of his security and intelligence systems in rescuing the girls.
He said:
“I cannot take responsibility for the abduction, I don’t control Boko Haram, they are criminals.
“But as a president, of course, you know it is not the president that goes to the fields, you have security and intelligence officers that do the work.
“Let me admit that yes, maybe they did their best but their best was not good enough for us to recover the girls.
“That does not mean that I am trying to remove myself from any blame, yes I may not be blamed for the action but I could be blamed that my security and intelligence systems were not strong enough to rescue the girls.”
In April 2014, 276 female students were abducted from a government secondary school in Chibok, a town in Borno State, Nigeria, by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.
The girls were aged between 16 and 18 years old and were mostly Christians.
Some of the girls managed to escape captivity on their own, while others were later released. About 98 girls are still in captivity after 9 years.
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