…Says no one helped Jonathan’s fight on Boko Haram like him
By Ismail Omipidan
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has fired back at former president Goodluck Jonathan, challenging him to make public report of a Presidential Fact-Finding Committee on the abduction of the Chibok school girls.
Shettima had, on Thursday, at a book presentation, in Abuja, exposed the poor handling of the abduction sàga by Jonathan, insisting that the former president believed, though erroneously that he (Shettima) had a hand in the abduction.
But Jonathan also replied on Friday, challenging the Borno governor to tell Nigerians all he knew about the abuction of the school girls.
Speaking yesterday through his Education commissioner, Inuwa Kubo, Shettima challenged the former president to tell Nigerians why he concealed the report of the fact- finding committee.
Shettima, who noted that his Education commissioner was among those interrogated, revealed that Jonathan had
constituted and inaugurated on Tuesday, 6th of May, 2014 a fact-funding committee on the matter and that the panel turned in its findings to the then President on Friday, 20th of June 2014.
He further said that former President Jonathan’s decision to constitute that committee was a “miraculous intervention by God to preserve” his innocence and that of his administration.
He added that if Jonathan was not the one that constituted the panel and received the report, no one would have upheld his (Shettima) innocence because Jonathan’s men would have questioned the report of any other fact-finding committee.
He therefore called on Jonathan’s media handlers to find something more important to do with their time rather than make baseless allegations just to confuse Nigerians.
While insisting that he remains one of the very few highly placed Nigerians that assisted Jonathan in the fight against Boko Haram, by approving the funding of civilian JTF without any support from the Federal Government and that Jonathan himself repeatedly acknowledged the role played by Civilian JTF in whatever success his administration recorded in the fight against insurgency, Shettima said “as a government we supported Jonathan’s administration by funding security agencies and mobilising community intelligence as publicly attested to by the then Director of Operations at the Defence Headquarters, Major General Lawrence Ndugbane. ”
“Jonathan’s anger with me was my decision to speak out, out of frustration though, by telling the world that the Nigerian Military wasn’t being equipped. And I have since been vindicated by former Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, who acknowledged that he led a troop that had no tools to fight.
“For records purpose, Eze (Jonathan’s media aide) and his colleagues are pointing at the wrong direction.
” They should ask their principal why he deliberately refused to make public the report of a committee he constituted, inaugurated and received the findings on facts surrounding the Chibok abduction and who to blame for it.
“To refresh their minds, on Tuesday, the 6th of May, 2014, President Jonathan had inaugurated multi-agency/stakeholder fact-finding committee under the chairmanship of Brig. General Ibrahim Sabo (rtd), a one-time Director of Military Intelligence and secretary of the Committee was from the Niger Delta. President Jonathan single handedly selected all members of that committee which included representatives of the UN, ECOWAS, retired and security officers from the Army, DSS and Police; representatives of the Chibok community, local and international civil rights organisations, representatives of the National Council of Women Societies, the Nigeria Union of Journalists and some of his highly trusted associates.
” For nearly two months, the committee undertook thorough investigations 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 President Jonathan.
“The committee also met with officials of Borno State Government including 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 President Jonathan on Friday, the 20th of June, 2014 in Aso Rock.
“The question anyone should ask is why President 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 me and the fact that I was in the opposition party?” Shettima asked.