The Special Adviser to the Nigerian President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, says the allegation that the parents of the abducted girls from Chibok were given a 100 million naira cash gift by the Presidency is completely untrue.
Reacting to the report, Abati said that nobody distributed any envelope after the meeting.
“The meeting was held in the villa, a public place. After the meeting, the President left and the parents as well as the children went into their buses in the presence of the media.
“There was no time after the meeting when envelopes were distributed or money was given”, he said.
He said that the President was not part of bribing and would never do anything to bribe anybody; “This issue is not about money. We are talking about human lives here.
“The allegation is completely wild. What they are claiming is unknown to the President. Whoever is claiming it should prove it because no such thing happened.
He said that the commitment of the President was to get the girls back safely. It is not about bribing anybody.
“This is a very serious matter and we will like to appeal to those who want to play politics with it, using all kinds of tricks to ridicule the efforts of the administration, to always appeal to their individual conscience and realize that what we are dealing with here is a very serious matter and not a matter of mischief.”
