'I no longer sleep with my two eyes closed' - President Jonathan

President Jonathan today revealed that since the abduction of the Chibok girls on April 14th, he does not sleep with his two eyes closed anymore. The president made this remark during the closing media conference of the just concluded World Economic Forum Africa today. What he said below...

"Let me also use this unique opportunity to thank all of you who have shown commitment and concern those of you in Nigeria and those of you outside this country to continue to press on that these terrorists must bring back our girls. And they have no choice because I am quite pleased that the whole world is signing the same message that they must bring back our girls. And there is no where they will take this girls to, they have no hiding place, we must work with the global community that is quite keen to make sure that we bring back this girls. We plead with the parents as a father and the President of this country, I feel pained and I don’t sleep with my two eyes closed and I will not sleep with my two eyes closed until these girls are brought safely back to their parents. I thank you for all the concern, for all the sentiments, communications you are putting across to the rest of the world about what we are doing and of course where the world wants to support us.” he said.

Meanwhile an Amnesty International report released today, May 9th, states that the Nigerian military was notified of the Boko Haram attack four hours before they arrived the Government Girls Secondary School where they abducted the young girls.

According to  Makmid Kamara, the Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International, indigenes of Chibok community who spoke with Amnesty officials on the condition of anonymity said they had informed military personnel in the area around 7pm that evening of a pending attack by Boko Haram but no one mobilized for military backup until the Boko Haram men came calling at 11.45pm

"We received information and we spoke to a senior Nigerian military officer, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, that they had received intelligence reports, even before local authorities and politicians got the information, that gunmen were on their way to the Chibok town"

"When I spoke to one of the senior military officials, they informed me that they [had] informed their superiors, and requested for reinforcement. But the reinforcement did not come." By the time the Boko Haram men came, only 17 soldiers were on ground and they could not withstand the emissaries the Islamic sect men came with.

"Only 17 troops were there to face the attack and they were outgunned and outnumbered. They had to flee for their lives together with some other villagers who fled to the bush," Kamara said.