Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan met with security, school and state officials and ordered that "everything must be done" to free the 276 girls held captive by Islamic extremists, one of his advisers said Sunday amid growing national outrage at the government's response to the abduction.
Jonathan said in a televised "media chat" Sunday night that he believes Nigeria is winning its war against an Islamic uprising.
Two
bomb blasts in three weeks that have killed about 100 people and
injured more than 200 in the capital, Abuja, "does not mean the
situation is worsening," Jonathan said.
"I believe we are succeeding," he said, though the death tolls tell a different story.
More
than 1,500 people have died in the insurgency this year, compared to an
estimated 3,600 between 2010 and 2013. Both of the Abuja blasts are
blamed on Boko Haram, the Islamic terrorist network.
Jonathan
said he has been asking for and getting help from the United States but
that President Barack Obama has expressed concern to him about
allegations of gross human rights abuses by security forces accused of
summary executions and the killings in detention of thousands of people.
"I said, 'Send someone to
see what we are doing and assist us, give us equipment that will help
us, because we need sophisticated (equipment), don't just say there is
some matter of alleged abuses," Jonathan said, describing one of two
conversations with the U.S. leader.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over the weekend promised help.
"The
kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable
crime, and we will do everything possible to support the Nigerian
government to return these young women to their homes and to hold the
perpetrators to justice," Kerry said from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Jonathan's
meeting over Saturday night was the first time the president had met
with all stakeholders, including the principal of the Chibok Government
Girls Secondary School in northeastern Nigeria where the girls and young
women were kidnapped in a pre-dawn raid April 15, presidential adviser
Reuben Abati told reporters.
Nigerians'
anger at the failure to rescue the students, and protest marches last
week in major Nigerian cities as well as New York City, have spurred to
action Jonathan's government, which many see as uncaring of the girls'
plight.
"The president has given very
clear directives that everything must be done to ensure that these girls
must be brought back to safety," Abati said.
The
police said last week that the actual number abducted had risen to more
than 300 and that 276 remain in captivity. It said 53 students managed
to escape their captors. None have been rescued by the military, which
initially said it was in hot pursuit of the abductors.
Some
of the girls have been forced into "marriage" with their abductors and
were paid a nominal bride price of $12, according to a federal senator
from the area whose report is unverified.
Some
of the young women have been taken across Nigeria's borders to Cameroon
and Chad, parents said last week, quoting villagers. Child marriage is
common in northern Nigeria, where it is allowed under Islamic law that
clashes with the country's Western-style constitution.
Anguished
parents in Chibok town, who have lost confidence in the government and
military, have been begging for international help.
In northeastern Nigeria,
police Sunday morning foiled an attack by suicide bombers who had packed
a pickup vehicle with explosives and petrol, the Defense Ministry said.
Police
arrested one of the culprits, who said the target was a police post in
the center of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, said spokesman Maj.
Gen. Chris Olukolade.
In a
further indication of security threats confronting Nigeria, the U.S.
Embassy on Friday warned Americans that "groups associated with
terrorism" may be planning "an unspecified attack" on a Sheraton hotel
in Nigeria's commercial center, Lagos. The city, on the Atlantic Ocean,
has never been attacked, though police last year arrested six suspected
extremists on popular Bar Beach.
The
Sheraton hotel chain has two locally owned franchises in the
southwestern city of about 20 million people. A duty manager at the
$350-a-night Sheraton in Ikeja suburb, near the international airport,
said he was unaware of any threat. He spoke on condition of anonymity
because he is not authorized to speak to reporters. There was no
response from the other Sheraton on the outskirts of Victoria Island, a
posh residential and business center.
Follow Me On WWW.TWITTER.COM/CRISAIGBE
