Former Political Adviser to President Bola Tinubu, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has claimed that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, initially did not believe reports of the mass abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram terrorists.

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok. While some have been rescued, many remain missing to this day.

Speaking during an interview on TVC, Baba-Ahmed dismissed claims that the abduction was politically motivated to discredit Jonathan’s administration.

Naijaonpoint reports that Baba-Ahmed criticised Jonathan’s approach to insecurity during his six-year tenure, saying it allowed Boko Haram to become a full-blown insurgency.

“I think we haven’t had leaders who will take on security headlong. Jonathan served for six years, and his handling of the security situation was very weak.

“It was under him that we had a full-blown Boko Haram all the way to 2005. Chibok wasn’t a blackmail of Jonathan; it was real. He and his wife didn’t believe it,” Baba-Ahmed said.

The former presidential aide expressed concern that many of the abducted Chibok girls remain unaccounted for, more than a decade after the incident.

“As we speak, Chibok girls are still missing and nobody can say where they are. Let’s not make light of this. Some of the girls were taken from their families and nobody knows where they are. Boko Haram kidnapped girls from Chibok town waiting for exams, so let’s not kid with this,” he added.