Again, Jonathan Snubs #BringBackOurGirls Protesters In Abuja …As Cameroon Vows To Wipe Out Boko Haram

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday ignored the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners who marched towards his office to seek the release of more than 200 Chibok school girls abducted by Boko Haram.
The snub was the second from the president since the girls were seized six months ago.
The protesters announced Monday they will meet the president yesterday after their first attempt in May failed as police barred them from reaching the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
The team was halted at the Eagles Square before a presidential delegation, led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, addressed them.
This time, October 14, exactly six months after armed insurgents burst into the Chibok school compound and took hundreds of girls hostage, the campaigners said they will “engage with” the president and urge a speedy rescue of the girls.
Early yesterday, the government stepped up security around the villa with armed officers stationed at strategic locations to wade off protesters.
The march was scheduled to begin at Unity Fountain, located close to Transcorp Hilton Hotels, Maitama, and to proceed to the State House through the Federal Secretariat.
But by 8.20 a.m., the government deployed a large team of armed officers at the two major gates leading to the Villa, apparently to forestall possible breakdown of order.
At the gate approaching from the Fire Service side of Asokoro, armed policemen and soldiers were stationed at the traffic light junction before the usual security checkpoint.
There were similar deployments at the federal secretariat end of the entrance.
Armed police officers and soldiers from the Brigades of Guards were stationed at a spot between the Villa Gate and the access road that leads to the National Assembly.
By late afternoon, campaigners marched through streets to the president’s office but were stopped at Yakubu Gowon Crescent where the president again refused to meet them, merely dispatching his female ministers to address the group.
In the team were the Ministers for Women Affairs, Zainab Maina; Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe; Environment, Laurentia Mallam, and Lands and Housinf, Akon Eyakenyi.
Meanwhile,Cameroon’s President, Mr Paul Biya vowed, yesterday, that his government would go after the Islamist group, Boko Haram, “until it is totally wiped out”.
His Nigerian counterpart, President Goodluck Jonathan, on his part, was confident that the activities of insurgents and other cross-border criminals will soon be drastically curtailed with the intensification of joint patrols, military operations and intelligence sharing by Nigeria and neighbouring countries as agreed by their leaders in Niamey last week.
Biya, who spoke after the release of the abducted 27 hostages comprising 17 Cameroonians and 10 Chinese said: “The Cameroonian government assures you that it will ceaselessly continue to fight Boko Haram until it’s totally wiped out”.
The 27 Cameroonians and Chinese were delivered to authorities last Friday night. The government has not said how they were freed, but a security source said that “a ransom” was paid and around 20 imprisoned Islamists were freed in exchange.
The Chinese were seized in May from a construction camp in Waza, near the border with Nigeria in an attack that left one Cameroonian soldier dead.
The Cameroonians – including the wife of one of Cameroon’s deputy prime ministers – were abducted in July during two simultaneous assaults, also blamed on Boko Haram, in which at least 15 people died.
One of the released Cameroonians, Seiny Boukar Lamine, told state radio, “we were in these sort of huts in a pretty dense forest, it was in a savannah with big trees and a lot of brush. We slept on the ground”. He said he was held with his wife and six children.
Another former hostage Abdouraman Seini, who survived a gunshot to his hand, told reporters that he and the other captives were forced to eat whatever was provided and at times went for days without water to drink.
He said they lived in miserable conditions and that they were tortured by men armed with knives and guns. “Freedom is a good thing, I pray such a thing never happens to anyone”, he said.
Abdouraman Seini added that he did not see any of the more than 200 girls from Chibok, Nigeria that Boko Haram claimed responsibility for kidnapping in April.
According to him “women are separated from men in the various detention camps run by the militants in the bush”.
Seini also told newsmen  that he believes it is very likely Boko Haram fighters will continue their attacks because they are running out of food for the hundreds of fighters and the hundreds of captives they have.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati quoted the president as telling the ministers of defence and foreign affairs of Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin Republic that such international collaboration was essential for success in the war against terrorism.
The ministers were in Abuja to work with their Nigerian counterparts on a legal framework for the cross-border military operations which President Jonathan and neighbouring heads of state approved in Niamey.
President Jonathan reiterated his belief that such collaboration was essential for success in the war against terrorism.
According to the statement, the president was pleased “with the decisions taken in Niamey to enhance and boost joint actions against Boko Haram and other cross-border criminals because we have to work together to defeat Boko Haram and other extremist groups in our sub-region.
“I believe that if we cooperate more and monitor our borders closely, the movement of criminals and terrorists as well as small arms and ammunition across our shared borders will also be drastically reduced,”
The visiting ministers were accompanied to the Presidential Villa by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali and the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh.
The President said that with their collective experience and professionalism, he expected the visiting ministers and their Nigerian counterparts to come up with an effective action plan for the successful implementation of the decisions reached by the leaders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin Republic at their meeting in Niamey on October 7, 2014.
It would be recalled that at the meeting in Niamey, Niger, the leaders announced plans to step up the fight against Boko Haram.
A communiqué issued after the meeting said that a command centre for a multinational force headed by a chief of staff will be in place by November 20.
The leaders also agreed to finalise the deployment of troops promised by member states to form the multinational force within their national borders by November 1.
The visiting ministers at the audience with President Jonathan were Niger’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Bazoun; Cameroon’s Minister of External Relations, Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo; Chad’s Minister of Defence, Benaindo Tatola; Chad’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Muossa Faki Mahamat; Niger’s Minister of Defence, K. Mahamadou; Benin’s Minister of Defence, Robert Yarou; Benin’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Nassirou Bako Arifari and Cameroon’s Minister of Defence, Edgar Alain Debe Ngo’o.

R-L:HonLegborsi Nwidadah, Dr Peter Medee, Hon (Mrs) Felicia Tane, Mr and Mrs Legbosi Piagbara, MOSOP President, Rev Kome Simeon and Dr Mike Nwielaghi at the dedication service of Ogoni project 2015, orgainsed by MOSPO at Methodist Church, Bori, last Sunday. Photo: Chris Monyanaga