Abati made these declarations in response to news making rounds that President Jonathan would be visiting Chibok, the town where the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls took place, after which he would head for Paris the same day.
According to a series of tweets which Abati posted today, the supposed planned visit of the President to Chibok was nothing but a rumour as no such plans where made.
Abati’s declarations have however been countered by several presidential aides who would usually go with the president on such visits; according to them, plans had been put in place for the Chibok visit and the president’s spokesperson was only claiming otherwise to ‘save face’.
“Everybody at the Villa knows that we were asked to prepare for the Chibok trip on Thursday. Some of us in the advanced party even left yesterday,” a presidential aide, who sought anonymity as he was not authorised to speak, said.
Abati’s statements of the planned visits being a rumour came up a few minutes after a source told newsmen that the visit had been called off due to security reasons.
President Jonathan has received a lot of criticism for not making a visit to the government school in Borno state where the mass kidnap of the schoolgirls took place, even though it has been a month since the unfortunate event occurred.