The Presidency has rejected what it said is the attempt by former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, to seek gain out of the misfortune of Chibok schoolgirls in the custody of Boko Haram terrorists, by launching a wrongly premised countdown to their release.

According to a statement issued in Abuja, on Monday, by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, Ezekwesili’s claim that President Goodluck Jonathan had made an affirmative statement of the rescue of the girls during his recent presidential media chat, upon which she based the countdown, was incorrect.

The Presidency, according to Okupe, believed that the leader of the BringBackOurGirls campaign was wrong to read a definite timeframe to the rescue of the girls, in view of the complexity of the military operations involved.

 “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to former Minister of Education and a leader of the BringBackOurGirls group, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, to the effect that President Jonathan has made an affirmative statement that girls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists in Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, would be freed within six weeks, hence the beginning of a countdown by the organisation.

“We wish to state that the statement made by the president during his last media chat was that the combined efforts of new offensive by the Nigerian military and its allies, as well as improved capacity in the operations, have made the chances for the rescue of the Chibok girls brighter than ever before.

“This statement cannot be construed as putting a six-week timeframe for the delicate task of freeing the girls alive, which the president remains very committed to and would definitely wish would even happen in a day.

“It is, therefore, insincere and mischievous on the part of Dr Ezekwesili and her organisation to launch a countdown which, from all intent and purpose, is meant to score cheap political points rather than encourage the military and help the cause of the girls and their depressed parents,” the statement read.