Fact check
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Goodluck Jonathan, president at the time,
criticized for poor response time during the
kidnapping of the 360 schoolgirls. Jonathan
said women and girls make up “about 50% of
our population” and that “we will be depriving ourselves of half our available human
resources if we fail to educate girls adequately or suppress their ambitions in any
way” The Nigerian leader’s comments came
amid rising public criticism of government’s
handling of the kidnapping (Yinka Ibukun,
August 2014, pg 1). This statement is true.
Nigerian government had advanced warning
of the kidnapping. Between 7:00 PM on 14
April and 2:00 AM on 15 April, the military
commands in Damboa, 36.5 km away from
Chibok, and Maiduguri, 130 km away from
Chibok, were repeatedly alerted to the threat
by both security and local officials. According to sources interviewed by Amnesty International, local civilian patrols (known as
“vigilantes”, set up by the military and local
authorities) in Gagilam, a neighbouring village, were among the first to raise the alarm
on the evening of 14 April after a large group
of unidentified armed men entered their
village on motorbikes and said they were
headed to Chibok. This set off a rapid chain
of phone calls to alert officials, including the
Borno State Governor and senior military
commanders based in Maiduguri. (Netsanet
Belay, 9 May 2014, pg 1.). This statement is
true.
Many different countries are still searching
for the missing girls? This is technically true,
but one thing to consider is the fact that
Boko Haram has continued to kidnap and
enslave many different underage boys and
girls in order to enslave and use the youth to
their advantage. They’ve not only kidnapped
girls but boys as well to use them in the army
they want to build. (Yinka Ibukun, August
2014) This statement is true.
President Jonathan took three weeks to
speak about the abductions. While this is
true, it’s not too relevant to the report as a
whole, mainly because the Nigerian President was doing what he could, and speaking
to the people apparently just wasn’t on the
top of his list. (Ben Ezeamalu, February
2016) This statement is true.
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