You Can't Give Me Ultimatum, Jonathan tells Northern Elders

News: By our correspondent.

President Goodluck Jonathan has replied the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) who gave him an ultimatum to produce the missing Chibok girls or forget about 2015 presidency. In statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, August 12, by the President’s Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, the presidency said he needs no ultimatum from anybody or group to live up to his responsibilities to the Nigerian people. Viewing the ultimatum with concern, the Presidency said the issue of insurgency, especially those based on Islamic extremism was not only a Nigerian problem but a global phenomenon which required tact, military capability, serious de-radicalisation techniques and community-based counter-insurgency programmes. He explained that the federal government was acquiring more advanced weapons and technologies for the military and security agencies and were improving on their operational capabilities and efficiencies which is why the government recently requested for an additional funding of $1 billion, adding that more military personnel have been drafted to the region to strengthen the fighting power of the security agents. “We are taking advantage of the offers from our international military and intelligence allies to assist in identifying key locations. We are working with our neighbours to secure the borders and limit the movements of the Boko Haram fighters, building on the agreements reached at the recent summits in Paris and London,” the statement read. The presidency said the government was also targeting the source of the insurgents’ fund with a view to stopping money inflow into the coffers of the terrorists. Rejecting the opinion of the northern elders that the crisis rocking the nation was engineered by the present administration to annihilate and weaken the North, the Presidency said with all the efforts and support of allies, they are closer to bringing the girls back safely.