By EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has flayed President Goodluck Jonathan over his failure to visit Chibok in Borno State, where over 200 secondary school girls were abducted by Boko Haram, saying it is a betrayal of the electorate who voted him into office.

The coordinator of the Information Management Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, however, rebuffed the assertions, saying that the President was in daily contact with the commanders on ground.

Omeri, who is also Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, told Vanguard that there was no issue about the President going to Chibok or not.

The APC, in a statement issued by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, equally flayed the administration for bungling the news about the cancellation of the visit.

It said: “With his utterances and actions or inaction, President Jonathan has deepened the pains of the parents and guardians of the girls, and that of the whole nation, when he should have been the consoler-in-chief at such a difficult time.

“A President and Commander-in-Chief, who is afraid to visit any part of his country, has betrayed the very people who voted him into office.

“In the case of Chibok, he has shown that the residents of the town should not expect to be seen as compatriots by their own President hence they are on their own.

“This definitely explains why, increasingly, Nigerians are resorting to self help, why ordinary citizens are taking up cudgels, machetes and dane guns to battle Boko Haram.

“It is nothing but the clearest indication of state failure and presidential ineffectiveness.”

It said the administration can still begin to make amends by immediately packaging a presidential visit to Chibok that would only be announced after the President must have returned from the visit, instead of one in which the President’s men leaked the trip to the world in the hope of gaining mileage, only to reap opprobrium when the trip was cancelled.

However, Omeri said: “The army officers there are there by his directives.

“The service chiefs have been there on his instructions and they are the ones trained to fight; they are the ones who have the weapons.

“They give him daily situation reports and daily, he meets with respective institutions and agencies that are on the campaign.

“His visit to the place may be important, but is immaterial to the prosecution of the campaign because the President cannot be everywhere at the same time.

“However, the President has not ruled out the possibility of visiting. So, I wonder why people take the position that the he has not visited and is like the president will not visit.

“If you look at what is happening and match it against what has happened in other parts of the world, I think we understand the issues at stake because what is most important is to fight terrorism and to use all agencies of state to calm the restive situation.”