BREAKING: Jonathan NOT going to Chibok

Reports that President Goodluck Jonathan will be visiting Chibok, Borno State, on Friday are not accurate, OTOHMILLAR has learnt. Reuters had reported on Thursday that the president would visit the town where hundreds of schoolgirls were kidnapped on April 14/15. However, a presidency source has denied the report. “Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati has issued a statement that the president will be travelling to France today (Friday). That is the fact. The president is not going to Chibok. Simple as that,” the source said. The president has been widely criticised for not visiting the scene of the abduction saga which is generating global attention following a social media campaign, #BringBackOurGirls. “If the president is going to Chibok, it will not be advertised in the media,” the source explained. “He would have left by the time you hear.” The official said it would be “foolhardy” to expect the president to tell the world he was on his way to Chibok. “That will just give Boko Haram a great opportunity to organise an embarrassment of international proportions for the president, just to prove a point. You don’t hear President Obama is going to see American troops in Afghanistan or Iraq until he has arrived and departed,” the source explained. No country will put the president in harm’s way, the official said. Jonathan is expected to fly to France on Friday for a regional summit on security, with Nigeria’s northern neighbours Chad, Cameroon and Niger in attendance. It is an initiative of the French government to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency which has been difficult to fight partly because of the countries’ porous borders. The three other countries are francophone and the influence of France on its former colonies is expected to help secure co-operate with Nigeria over the security situation.