In what represents a mighty twist in a tale that has gripped the world since April 14, First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has declared that no girl was abducted from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State in North-East Nigeria.

She made the declaration yesterday at a meeting of women stakeholders which she convened at the Presidential Villa from 6pm on Sunday to 3am on Monday attended by women from various interest groups in the country. Summoned before the meeting to answer questions on the abducted girls saga were the Borno State Commissioner of Police, the Chibok Divisional Police Officer; the army captain in charge of the region, the Borno commissioners of health and education; as well as the principal of GSS Chibok, Hajia Asabe, and WAEC official Charles Eguridu.

The turning point came when it was discovered that Naomi Mutah, one of those leading the protests over the abduction of the more than 200 schoolgirls, is not the mother of any of the girls and has not even been to Chibok in the past one year. Ordering Mutah’s arrest for alleged impersonation, a visibly angry Dame Jonathan said: “So my sisters, you can all see that within them, they know what they’re doing. With what is happening now, will you believe that any children got missing?”

A loud ‘NO!’ rent the hall, after which the First Lady said: “So, we, the Nigerian women, are saying that no child is missing in Borno State. If any child is missing, let the governor go and look for them. There is nothing we can do again. We’ll now go spiritual. What we, women, should pray for now is the killings in Borno to stop. God will reveal them one by one. The blood of the innocent victims will come out and speak.”

The meeting, which ended at 3am, resolved that selected Christians and Muslims, 20 each, would assemble on Thursday “to pray for what is happening in Borno State.”

The First Lady’s declaration came hours after the Northern States Christian and Elders Forum (NOCSEF), an affiliate of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), on Sunday afternoon released the names of abducted 180 girls comprising 165 Christians and 15 Muslims.

On Sunday night, President Goodluck Jonathan in his Presidential Media Chat admitted that he did not know where the girls are being kept but vowed to find and rescue them.

Yesterday, exactly three weeks after the heinous act, Boko Haram terrorist group took responsibility for the abduction of the schoolgirls. “I abducted your girls,” Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video in which he also threatened to sell the girls.

•Photo shows Dame Patience Jonathan.

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