PRESIDENCY GAVE CHIBOK GIRLS, PARENTS N100,000, N200,000 RESPECTIVELY — COMMUNITY LEADERS

THE Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), a community representing the Chibok people in Abuja, has debunked reported receipt of money from the Presidency by the leadership of the association.
The group, however, isclosed that its findings revealed that each of the escaped girls and their parents got the sum of N100,000 and N200,000 each respectively from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties.
The association, in a press release signed by her spokesperson, Dauda Ilya, expressed displeasure and disgust at the purported allegation that the leadership of KADA received financial gratification to facilitate the invitation of parents and escaped Chibok girls, regarding the claim as “completely false, malicious and unfounded, to say the least.”
The group said it only played the sole role of facilitators in the visit of the parents and escaped Chibok girls and that “no amount of money whatsoever was given to KADA leadership to share among the parents and escaped girls.”
Justifying that the group did not demand, receive or handle any finances throughout the process of the visit, the group, in its findings, stated that “on the night of July 22, at about midnight, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties, who had been coordinating the visit, visited the hotel and told the 51 escaped girls 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.”
It added that the sum of N200,000 each was also given to 61 parents out of the 122 parents that came during the visit.
According to the statement, “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.
“As for the money given to some parents back home in Chibok, it was the sum of N1,000,000 given to them by the member of the House of Representatives representing Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza federal constituency which is the source of the alleged N7,000 given to parents in Chibok that were not part of the visit.”
The statement maintained that its leadership obliged the request of the presidency because it was in line with the group’s primary priority of calling for decisive measures to ensure the release of the abducted 219 girls.
“We clearly spelt out to the presidency, through the office of the Chief of Staff, that we shall not be involved with any financial transaction whatsoever, including payment of transportation from Chibok to Yola, flight by air from Yola to Abuja, hotel accommodation and feeding in Abuja and intra-city transportation while in Abuja.
“The presidency agreed to our request and made the arrangements for the conveyance of the parents and escaped girls from Chibok to Abuja, accommodated them and was responsible for their feeding and local transit,” KADA added.
Source: Tribune