Although President Goodluck Jonathan has denied giving N100 million cash gift to parents of abducted Chibok girls, when they met with him on July 22 at the Presidential Villa, the parents of the girls have insisted that money was given and that they were cheated out of it by their leaders, who collected the money from the president.



According to a report monitored on Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, however, some of the parents are now alleging that the Abuja-based community leaders have shortchanged them.

One parent, who was among those who visited the President, told BBC that he got only N200,000. He said: "I got only N200,000 out of the said N100million allegedly received by our leaders in Abuja. Some of us got N300,000 and some less than that.

He also said that he was not comfortable with the way the money was shared among parents of the kidnapped girls. According to him: "Our leaders in Abuja are using the girls to enrich themselves. In fact, some of the parents were screened out of the entourage by the Chibok leaders in Abuja. Many of them are residents of Abuja, not parents of the kidnapped girls".

Another parent, who was screened out of the delegation that visited the President, said he got only N7,000 out of the money shared.

"I was at the farm when they brought the N7, 000 to my house and I collected it. Some of us got even less, some got N300 and below," he said.

The parents stressed that they were not selling their daughters and that the money from the President just came to them as they neither asked for, nor expected it.

One of the community leaders, Pobu Bitrus, who is also a member of the House of Representatives and was at the meeting with the President explained to the BBC that after meeting with the President, monies were distributed to the parents in envelopes.

"After we met with the president, the parents were given monies in envelopes and that’s all. All other things they are saying about N100million, I don’t know about that," Mr. Bitrus said.