Jonathan won’t endanger lives of Chibok girls -Abati

President Goodluck Jonathan will not bow to pressure being mounted on him by his critics to publicly reveal details of Federal Government’s efforts aimed at rescuing the over 200 schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State on April 14.

Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, disclosed this in a letter to the editor titled “Nigeria is aggressively confronting the Boko Haram threat by Reuben Abati” published by Washington Post on Tuesday.

Abati wrote that the President would not put the lives of the girls at risk by publicly revealing details of the recovery operation for the sake of satisfying his critics.

He was responding to an earlier opinion written by one Karen Attiah and published on July 3.

Attiah had claimed in the piece titled “#BringBackMyEasyDays,” claimed that Jonathan has a “do-nothing” attitude toward rescuing the girls.

But Abati wrote that contrary to that claim, the President had been working intensely on the challenge posed to his administration by the Boko Haram sect,

The presidential spokesman wrote, “Karen Attiah’s July 3 op-ed, “#BringBackMyEasyDays,” was incorrect on the facts surrounding Ni­ger­ian President Goodluck Jonathan’s efforts to rescue the more than 200 young girls abducted in April by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

“The claim that the President has a “do-nothing” attitude toward rescuing the girls is no different than what was written about President Obama’s decision not to disclose his efforts to seize and arrest the alleged ringleader of the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans — until he did just that.

“Mr. Jonathan won’t put the lives of these girls at risk by publicly revealing details of the recovery operation for the sake of satisfying his critics.

“Despite Ms. Attiah’s claims to the contrary, even before the abductions, the President was engaged in international intelligence-sharing involving West Africa, Europe and the United States, and he had also launched the Counter-Terrorism Centre in Nigeria.

“He has been working intensely on the very challenging situation posed by Boko Haram since assuming office, including declaring a state of emergency in May 2013 in the three most affected northern states.”