FG Allegedly Paid 2 Million Euros For Release Of Chibok Girls

Fresh facts have emerged on how the Federal Government succeeded in securing the release of 82 Chibok girls, who were abducted in exchange for Boko Haram commanders last week. 

It was gathered that in exchange for the Boko Haram commanders, SaturdayTelegraph learnt that the government ‘handsomely rewarded’ the terror group with a discharge fee of two million Euros. This latest revelation was contained in a news story posted by an online news portal, the British Broadcasting Service (BBC), on its website last night.

Though the medium did not mention its sources, it, however, reported that the ‘freed terrorists’ were highlevel Boko Haram bomb makers. The BBC noted that: “The release of the 82 came with a price… the details of the deal are sketchy. But they report that five senior Boko Haram militants were moved from a high security unit to be driven to freedom.


“Sources don’t want to be named and their version of events is hard to confirm, but they say the men were high level Boko Haram bomb makers, and that they were accompanied by two million euros in cash. Governments rarely admit to paying a ransom, and this claim could not be independently verified.”

Last week, there were news reports that the freed men had threatened to bomb Abuja, a report which was backed up by a video released by the sect. On the heels of the BBC revelation, reports filtered in last night that the 82 Chibok school girls who were rescued from Boko Haram may be reunited with their parents today barely three weeks after their release. Since their arrival in Abuja, the girls have been kept under protective custody in a facility believed to be under the management of the Department of State Security Services.


Earlier in the week, there were speculations that the reunion meeting had been scheduled for yesterday (Friday) but Saturday Telegraph learnt that the programme was shelved due to the logistics of moving most of the parents who are resident in Chibok to Abuja.

Chairman of the Chibok Community in Abuja, Mr. Tsambido Abana, told SaturdayTelegraph over the telephone that the parents of the girls left Chibok at 9am yesterday by road and were due on Abuja late last night or early today. According to Abana, the journey from Chibok to Abuja is a whole day’s journey by road.

The other alternative that could have made it swift would have been by flight. Abana who was also on his way from Chibok said he would arrive Abuja today but could not confirm where and when the reunion between parents and their rescued daughters would take place. Similarly, the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG), an advocacy group championing the cause of the Chibok Girls have said it was not aware of the arrangement for the said reunion.


A source in a message posted by the group on its Whatsapp portal yesterday reads thus: “We don’t have any information on the meeting of Chibok parents with their returned 82 daughters aside what’s available in the media. “The last we heard from a parent yesterday evening who said he is among those coming was that they’ll be leaving Chibok this morning. “Chibok to Abuja is 48 hours by road, except they are coming by air. If we have information we shall relay here in a timely manner.


Thanks.” Meanwhile, the Presidency has confirmed that one other girl who was also abducted from Chibok has been rescued from the hands of the terrorists. A statement from the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the return of the girl had been confirmed by the Office of the National Security Adviser. “Just confirmed from NSA office that the name of the girl that escaped yesterday is Mariam Mohammed Isa, 15, a JSS1 student kidnapped three years from the Chibok community but not among the 219 girls,” Adesina said.


In similar development, a leader of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement, Aisha Yesufu, yesterday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign due to his health issues. In a two-minute video she posted online, Yesufu said Buhari could no longer discharge his duty as president. She said: “When are we going to realise that this acting president thing is not working out at all, things are stagnating in Nigeria.

For crying out loud, the president is sick, the president is not capable of carrying out his duty as president so why can’t he resign, sickness can happen to anybody, nobody is wishing the president bad. “The fact that he is sick doesn’t mean he is going to die today or tomorrow, somebody that is as healthy as I am right now can drop dead, it’s life!.

“For crying out loud, how long are we going to pray and watch everything go in disarray?, Who is going to sign the 2017 budget?, we don’t know, the report on Babachir Lawal,what’s happening to it?, why are we being held to ransom? “President Buhari, you have got the best in this world, most of the things you have, a lot of people dream to have that, some cannot even afford to dream, you have been president twice, you said it yourself you have reached the peak of your career as a military man and as a politician so for crying out loud President Buhari, can you allow 170 million Nigerians to equally reach the peak of our careers?

“It’s not about you Mr. President, can you just take some time off to take care of yourself, may God give you health, What you’re going through is Godsend, people go through that in different ways but please Mr. President, do not allow this keep the rest of us in bondage.

“The rest of Nigerians, it’s time we wake up, the acting president can’t do anything, he wants to be seen as a good man, we need to take our country back, let the president resign and if he can’t resign, let the National Assembly do the right thing and let’s have another president, it’s not about President Muhammadu Buhari, it’s about Nigeria because right now, Nigeria is suffering and we cannot allow this.” This is not the first time Yesufu is speaking about the presidency. In August 2016, she branded President Muhammadu Buhari as a “failure” for his inability to rescue the abducted Chibok girls.

“Mr President you are a failure, I dare President Muhammadu Buhari, you should stand up and behave like a man,” she had said then. Meanwhile, three male suicide bombers were feared killed while attempting to attack a female hostel in the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Borno State on Thursday night.

Report revealed that the attack which was the fourth on the school since January was stopped by eagle-eyed security men after the bombers attempted to enter the female hostel at 11.50pm. It was also gathered that one of the three suicide bombers carried an AK 47 gun while at least two bombs exploded during the attack.

During the course of the confusion that ensued, one of the suicide bombers hurriedly detonated the Improvised Explosive Device (IED), strapped on his body, killing himself and injured three security men. The other two scampered off and detonated their bombs near a construction site, close to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

Confirming the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the spokesperson for Borno State Police Command, Mr. Victor Isuku, said: “On May 18, 2017 at 2350hrs, three male suicide bombers with IEDs strapped to their bodies, gained entry into the premises of university of Maiduguri.”




from newtelegraphonline