A presidential aide also confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES at 12:10 p.m. on Friday that the president was still in Abuja and would fly directly to France.

President Goodluck Jonathan will no longer visit Chibok on Friday, aides have said.

The president had planned to Chibok, the town where over 250 female students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State were kidnapped on April 14.

The visit was supposed to be a stopover on Mr. Jonathan’s trip to France for a security summit.

Although the visit was not confirmed by presidency, an advanced team of the presidential entourage left Abuja for Borno on Thursday; a normal practice in the presidency.

Presidency sources told the BBC that the visit was cancelled due to security concerns.

A presidential aide also confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES at 12:10 p.m. on Friday that the president was still in Abuja and would fly directly to France.

Borno is the major state where the Boko Haram insurgents operate and has been under emergency rule since May last year.

The group, which claimed responsibility for the kidnap of the Chibok girls and has shown video of them, has caused the death of at least 2,000 people in 2014 alone.

In the last one month, the Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people in various raids on different Borno villages. Several houses and other property were also destroyed.

Mr. Jonathan has been criticised for not acting early enough to secure the release of the Chibok girls and for not visiting either the school or the parents of the abducted girls.

 

News Credit: Premium Times