The Borno State Government has challenged former President Goodluck Jonathan to release the findings of his committee set up to investigate the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014. The state Commissioner for Education, Mr. Musa Kubo, in a statement, said, “Nigerians should ask Jonathan why he concealed reports of his own fact-finding committee.”
Kubo, who was one of those interrogated by Jonathan’s Fact-Finding Committee on Chibok Schoolgirls Abduction, was reacting to a statement by a media aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, Ikechukwu Eze. Eze, in an earlier statement, had asked Governor Kashim Shettima to tell Nigerians whatever he knew regarding the April 14, 2014 abduction of over 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram after the sect attacked Government Secondary School, Chibok.
But Kubo said, “Rather than direct spurious allegations to Governor Shettima on controversies surrounding the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls, the media aide should ask his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan, why he deliberately concealed (the) report of a presidential fact-finding committee he constituted and inaugurated on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 and which submitted the report of its findings to him on Friday, June 20, 2014.
“For the purpose of records, Eze and his colleagues are pointing towards the wrong direction; they should ask their principal, Jonathan, why he deliberately refused to make public the report of a committee he constituted, inaugurated and received their findings on facts surrounding the Chibok abduction and who is to blame for it.
“For nearly two months, the committee undertook a thorough investigation that included forensic assessment of all documents on the entire issues, held meetings with parents of the schoolgirls, visited Chibok, met with the then Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, the Director-General of the DSS and the Inspector-General of Police, all of whom were appointees of Jonathan.”
The statement added, “The committee also met with officials of Borno State Government, including myself and the school principal. The committee held meetings with heads of different security agencies in Borno State, including security formations in charge of Chibok, and after compiling their findings, the committee submitted its report directly to Jonathan on Friday, the June 20, 2014 in Aso Rock.
“The question anyone should ask is why Jonathan deliberately refused to make that report public
“What was he hiding from Nigerians? Here is another question: if the findings had indicted Governor Shettima or the Borno State Government in anyway, does anyone really think Jonathan would have concealed that report, given his open hatred for Shettima and the fact that the governor was in the opposition party?”
According to the commissioner, Shettima was supportive of Jonathan in the fight against Boko Haram, single-handedly approving the funding of Civilian JTF without any support from the Federal Government.
He said the governor supported Jonathan by funding security agencies and mobilising community intelligence as publicly attested to by the then Director of Operations at the Defence Headquarters, Maj. Gen. Lawrence Ndugbane.
Kubo claimed that Jonathan’s main anger with Shettima was when the governor, “out of frustration,” told the world that the military was not being equipped.
He said the governor’s claim had since been proved right by the indictment of the erstwhile Chief of Defence Staff and the revelation that huge funds, meant for arms, were shared under Jonathan’s watch.
The commissioner described Jonathan’s decision to constitute the committee as a miraculous intervention by God to preserve the innocence of Shettima and his administration.
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