Produce Chibok girls or forget 2015 - Northern Elders tells Jonathan

Northern Elders Forum (NEF) yesterday, said that President Goodluck Jonathan should forget about contesting in 2015 if he fails to produce the Chibok secondary school students kidnapped by the Boko Haram sect in April.

According to statement, signed by Barrister Solomon Dalung and Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the group NEF states that it does not believe that the Nigerian military cannot defeat the terrorists, and that it feels the conflicts in the country are simply being engineered to weaken the North politically and economically.

"We also reject the notion that multiple internal security challenges such as attacks on villages, ethno-religions conflicts and banditry springing up by the day in many parts of the north are all a coincidence," the statement said.

"Indeed, we are convinced that most of these conflicts are being engineered to weaken the North politically and economically by interests which intend to exploit such weaknesses for electoral benefits."

Asking Mr. Jonathan to forfeit 2015 unless he produces the Chibok girls, the Northern Elders warned, "In the light of our firm conviction that the insurgency and related security challenges pose threats to the 2015
elections and the survival of our nation, we strongly advise President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to bring an end to the insurgency in all its manifestations and produce the Chibok girls before the end of October, 2014. The circumstances under which our fellow citizens in and around Gwoza in Borno state in particular live and die will not be tolerated by any people who have a government and a leader sworn to defend them, and they must be reversed immediately. In the event that President Jonathan fails to do this, Nigerians will be left with the only conclusion that he has forfeited his right to ask for our mandate beyond 2015."