Buhari didn’t storm out of meeting with BBOG campaigners – Presidency

The Presidency on Friday said there was no truth in the news making the rounds that President Muhammadu Buhari stormed out of the meeting he had with parents of the abducted Chibok girls, representatives of the Chibok community and members of the Bring Back Our Girls movement at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Friday.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, made the clarification on his Twitter handle and Facebook page.


Shehu said the President could not have stormed out of the meeting.

He said Buhari was only called to a meeting that he did not start with them, he played his part and left for the meeting to continue.

The presidential spokesman also justified the decision to excuse journalists from the meeting for security reasons.

Shehu said, “We thank the Bring Back Our Girls Movement for a good event. But that is not to say that all of the accounts of the meeting on Twitter are accurate.

“President Buhari could not have stormed out of his meeting with the Chibok parents, stakeholders and the BBOG. He was called to speak at a meeting he did not start. He did his part and left so that the meeting would continue.

“It is simple meeting procedure. He had to leave without being disruptive. That is what happened. The ministers did not even escort him. They stayed back to conclude the meeting.

“I thought that the President should be praised for ending his meeting with a foreign leader to come, and for the courtesy and respect he showed to the parents and the BBOG, which is undoubtedly Africa’s best known social action movement.

“We asked cameras out for two reasons. Sensitive security information may be disclosed. Two, privacy is not unusual with leaders around the world when they meet families in grief. We didn’t want anyone to get the sense that the President was exploiting their images in a photo op.”

In a tweet by the leader of the BBOG group, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili on her twitter handle @obyezeks, she affirmed that the President did not storm out of the meeting with the group.