The Eagle Online can authoritatively report that the Presidency lied concerning the aborted trip of President Goodluck Jonathan to Chibok, Borno State.
Contrary to the claim by the Presidency that Jonathan was not scheduled to visit Chibok, the town in Borno State where close to 300 schoolgirls were abducted by dreaded sect, Boko Haram, The Eagle Online learnt otherwise.
Presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, and the Director General of the National Orientation Agency, Mike Omeri, on Friday denied the report in the media that the President was scheduled to visit Chibok, 32 days after the abduction of the girls.
The Eagle Online learnt that after the impromptu visit was agreed on, the presidential advance team left for Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Thursday.
The advance team was made up of operatives of the Department of State Service, Brigade of Guards, soldiers, the medical and media teams, protocol and policemen.
The team was said to have left late for Borno State on Thursday.
It is elected back in Abuja on Saturday, The Eagle Online learnt.
On Friday morning, some of those who were to accompany President Jonathan as part of the main team had arrived at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja before they were told to return to the Presidential Villa sequel to the cancellation of the trip.
Among those said to have arrived at the airport was President Jonathan’s official photographer.
A source within the Presidential Villa told The Eagle Online that it was Abati who gave a foreign media the hint of the visit to Chibok by President Jonathan.
It was from the foreign news medium that the rest of the media picked the information.
Abati, however, was said to have spurned further communication with the foreign media outfit after the President, for security reasons, refused to embark on the trip.
On Wednesday, some soldiers of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, Borno State went on rampage while protesting the death of six of their colleagues.
The officer and five soldiers died when they were ambushed in Chibok area while on patrol.
The protesting soldiers were reported to have shot at their General Officer Commanding, Major General Ahmed Mohammed, who came on a visit to the barracks.
The Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, confirmed the development.
Olukolade equally said that Mohammed has been removed as the GOC while a court martial had been set up to try the soldiers.
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