Fani-Kayode had threatened that the governor may face prosecution for ignoring security report and counsel from the Federal Government against holding the 2014 May/June West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations in Chibok.
But the governor, in his reaction, dispelled the threat from Fani-Kayode, whom he described as only seeking media attention, adding that the report of the presidential fact-finding committee on the missing schoolgirls actually absolved him from any blame.
This came as some of the parents of the abducted schoolgirls and concerned members of Chibok community, on Monday, condemned the recent visit by the Federal Government officials to Chibok, insisting that what they are after is the return of their missing children.
In a statement issued by Sufuyan Ojeifo, Special Assistant to Fani-Kayode, in Abuja, on Monday, the PDPCO spokesman said the abducted Chibok schoolgirls would have been saved the ordeal to which they had been subjected these past 329 days had the governor taken the advice and acted in accordance with the security reports that the town was not safe for the examinations.
He, therefore, served notice to Governor Shettima to be ready for investigation and prosecution after leaving office if found complicit in the circumstances that led to the abduction of the girls.
According to the statement, “Shettima will not be governor forever and when he is no longer in office, his role in the Chibok affair would be investigated and, if found wanting, he would be prosecuted.”
He accused the governor of reflecting the thinking of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the whole Chibok abductions that “his insensitivity allowed to happen.”
According to the statement, “the circumstances that led to the abduction of the innocent girls, who were writing their examination in an environment that was everything but secure, underscored the governor’s negligence.
“The governor must give account to God and to the Nigerian people for what he has done to those girls. We are accusing him of being responsible for the abduction of the Chibok girls, because he was warned by the Federal Government and by WAEC not to allow the examination to take place in Chibok.
“He ignored the warning and promised to guarantee security for those girls. When time came, the governor did not even deploy one policeman, let alone adequate security.
“In any other country, this man would have been arrested and prosecuted for collaborating with Boko Haram. But here, in Nigeria, instead of him showing remorse, he went all over the world attacking the president and the Federal Government over the Chibok affair. Those he was speaking to did not know that he, more than anybody else, was responsible for the abduction of those girls.”
Reacting , Shettima said Fani-Kayode contradicted himself by making the assertion as he had earlier pronounced a different group guilty over the Chibok girls’ saga.
Further referring the president’s spokesperson to the findings of the committee, which gave him a clean bill as reported in a national newspaper, Shettima urged Fani-Kayode to speak with facts and not ignorance.
“Long before Fani-Kayode was appointed, his employer and our dear president, Goodluck Jonathan, had, in 2014, set up a presidential fact-finding committee on the missing Chibok schoolgirls, which was made up of serving and retired security officials, civil societies, elders from Chibok, the Christian Association of Nigeria, Muslims, journalists, labour groups, the National Council on Women Societies and many others, with the mandate of establishing facts concerning the circumstances that led to the kidnap of the schoolgirls.
“After being in Borno State for nearly two weeks, the committee was in Chibok and met with all those it marked as stakeholders. The committee met all security chiefs in Borno State, met officials of WAEC in Borno, met virtually everybody and analysed documents, at the end, from what a national newspaper reported on the findings of the committee, it gave a clean bill to Governor Shettima, as he was rather a traumatised victim doing so well in managing the security challenges in the state.
“Fani-Kayode that is seated in Abuja and issuing statement didn’t have the patriotism to follow President Jonathan on his recent visit to liberated communities, at least to be on record that he was once in Borno State. He sits and speaks with so much arrogance and ignorance.
“But like I said yesterday, we don’t take Fani-Kayode serious and nobody does in Nigeria. He had pronounced a different group guilty over Chibok girls long before now, so if he reverse himself over that like he contradicted many others, there is nothing new. He is only begging to be reported on newspapers and shown on television screen with the soul aim of creating an impression that he is working,” Shettima added.
While addressing journalists at the Borno State Hotels in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, the chairman, caretaker committee in Chibok Council Area, Mallam Ba’ana Lawan, accused the Federal Government of making several promises to rescue the 219 abducted schoolgirls to no avail.
At the meeting, which was attended by hundreds of Chibok people residents in Maiduguri, the council chairman also expressed dismay over the move to rebuild Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, which was destroyed by the insurgents after abducting the schoolgirls, stressing that the traumatised parents and the entire people of Chibok community only wanted their children back home.
“It is disheartening to inform you that since the abduction of these girls, the Federal Government did not bother to send delegations to Chibok to sympathise with the parents, instead, they were invited to Abuja and conveyed in cargo military plane with no comfort whatsoever.
“We still observed that recently, President Goodluck Jonathan visited Mubi and Baga, but failed to visit Chibok to sympathise with our people.
“We also observed that the president and the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh, had severally promised that these girls would soon be released, but is it is now more than 300 days, and nothing of such had happened.
“We thank God and appreciate Governor Kashim Shettima and his wife, Nana, who did not only visited Chibok when the incident took place, but also secured admission for the 59 schoolgirls that escaped from the Boko Haram to study in various schools in the country and all assistance he has rendered to the parents.
“It is most unfortunate that Chibok Local Government Area have witnessed six different attacks by insurgents and about 300 people lost their lives with property worth millions of naira destroyed, hundreds of houses razed, as well as food and cash crops looted.
“The most recent attacks being that of Gatamwarwa, Kautikari and other surrounding villages, where several lives were equally lost. Yet there was no response from the Federal Government.
“We, therefore, condemned the Federal Government for, instead of bringing back our girls as severally promised, it decided to embark on the reconstruction of the school.” Lawan stated.
He, however, appreciated the persistence of the #BRINGBACKOURGIRLS group in Abuja and the media, who had been pressurising the Federal Government to intensify effort in rescuing the innocent girls.
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