Yes, Jonathan Gave Us Money; It's N22.4m – Chibok Parents

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When a government start lying in the face of obvious facts, then you know that something is wrong. Contrary to the claims by the Presidency, President Goodluck Jonathan offered money to the parents of abducted Chibok girls as well as those whose daughters escaped from the grips of their Boko Haram captors. After three months of mounting criticism of his handling of the abduction crisis, President Jonathan finally hosted the relatives of the still missing schoolgirls at the Presidential Villa, Abuja last week Tuesday.

Dauda Ilya, a spokesman for the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), which organized the parents’ trip to Abuja, opened up at a media briefing in Abuja that President Jonathan had given N22.4 million to the distraught parents. Mr. Ilya’s statement contradicted a claim by Reuben Abati, the special adviser to the President on media, that Jonathan did not give money to the grieving parents when they visited. The man said...

“On the night of the 22nd July, 2014 at about midnight, the senior special assistant to the President on special duties, who had been coordinating 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.” Continue...

According to him, Jonathan’s aide also “gave the sum of N200,000 each to 61 parents out of the 122 parents that came on the visit. 51 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."

Sources said that the sharing of the money could lead to serious trouble in Aso Rock as some top officials have taken "their own share" from the money released to the Chibok parents illegally.

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