That the presidency shared some money to the relatives and community of the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in April, after their State House visit last week is no longer a rumour. The Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA) the umbrella community, where Chibok belongs, has confirmed that they received a sum of N22.4m.
Though the leadership of the community was trying to refute an allegation that the presidency gave the Chibok parents and escaped girls N100m at held a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on 22nd July, it inadvertently confirmed that money exchanged hands as earlier alleged by the Bring Back Our Girls Campaigners.
The association made its clarification in a press statement signed by its Spokesman, Dauda Ilya, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ilya in the statement, explained that 63 individuals, including 51 girls who escaped from the abductors were given N100,000 each, 51 parents equally received N100,000 each and another 61 parents got N200,000 each.
He also pointed out that 10 parents out of the 122 that were at the meeting with Jonathan did not receive any money.
“On the night of 22nd July 2014 at about midnight, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties who had been co-ordinating the visit on the side of the presidency, visited the hotel and told the 51 escaped girls who came that the Presidency sent them a token of N100,000 each and accordingly gave them the said sum without prior discussion with any KADA official or any other person in the community,” Ilya said.
“He equally gave the sum of N200,000 each to 61 parents out of the 122 parents that came on the visit. Fifty one parents were given N100,000 each on the basis that the money given to him was not enough to go round at N200,000. The remaining 10 parents were not given any amount of money.”
About the money given to some parents back home in Chibok, “it was the sum of N1m given to them by the member of the House of Reps representing Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency which is the source of the alleged N7,000.00 given to parents in Chibok that were not part of the visit,” Ilya added.
He said the community was disturbed and disgusted by media reports that its leadership received money from the presidency, describing the claim as “false, malicious and unfounded.”
Ilya explained that KADA had told the Presidency through the office of the Chief of Staff that it would not be involved in any financial transaction whatsoever, including payment of transportation from Chibok to Yola, flight by air from Yola to Abuja, hotel accommodation and feeding in Abuja, as well as the intra-city transportation of the parents and girls while in Abuja.
Ilya affirmed that the community’s primary priority remains the rescue of the 219 girls still in captivity.
“Our Association has been at the forefront of calling for decisive measures to secure their release,” Ilya said.
“We took the moral high ground as a Community Association that represents the Chibok people in Abuja to facilitate the recent visit of parents of our abducted daughters and 51 of the 57 that escaped.
“We helped make that visit possible despite our misgivings that it was a poor substitute to our expectation that Mr. President should have visited Chibok even before the visit of our people for a tragedy that is now 107 days old.”
Ilya concluded that, while the community welcomes well intended support for the suffering population of Chibok town who have been destabilised since the 14th April abduction, the presidency’s approach has brought “reproach and dishonour” to the community in the eyes of the public that has supported them since the beginning of the community’s hard times.
