#APCLies! Boko Haram Commanders Were Exchanged for Chibok Girls - CNN Reveals

CNN is reporting that a number of Boko Haram commanders were freed as part of Thursday's release of 21 Chibok schoolgirls which have been in captivity for almost 2 years. 

Conflicting information is emerging about what Boko Haram received in exchange for releasing 21 Chibok schoolgirls in Nigeria this week after holding them for two years.

 

"A number of Boko Haram commanders" were freed as part of Thursday's release of the girls, a source close to the negotiations between the Islamist militant group and the Nigerian government said on condition of anonymity.

 

This contrasts with what the Nigerian government has said, which is that the girls' release was not a prisoner exchange.

 

"This was not a swap," Nigerian Information Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed said Thursday. "It is a release, the product of painstaking negotiations and trust on both sides."

 

A separate source, one with direct knowledge about the girls' release, told CNN Thursday that no captive Boko Haram fighters were released in exchange for the girls.

 

The 21 that Boko Haram released Thursday were among the 276 girls and women, ages 16 to 18, that militants herded from bed in the middle of the night at a boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria, in April 2014 - a kidnapping that spurred global outrage.

 

Credits: CNN.com

500 Days After Chibok Girls Kidnap: Lagosians Protest

The Lagos state chapter of the #BringBackOurGirls group carried out a solidarity march to commemorate the disappearance of more than 200 girls that were abducted from their school by Boko Haram.

The girls were abducted on April 14, 2014 from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno state and have since then been in the captivity of the dreaded Islamist group.

The group numbering about 200 members and dressed in red began the march around 10: am on Thursday August, 27 from Allen Junction, Ikeja and marched to the governor’s office at Alausa. They carried placards and banners with inscriptions urging the government to make the rescue of the abducted Chibok girls a priority.

The head of the team, Mr. Samuel Omoniyi who spoke exclusively to Naij.com said the focus of the group was to drive the government to make the return of the girls a priority. He insisted that the assurance of President Muhammadu Buhari was not enough but actions were also needed to make the release of the girls from the clutches of Boko Haram a possibility.

Another top member of the group, Ayo Obe said the quest for the release of the girls was beyond any political motivation but a human driven thing. She said the previous government failed to ‘curb the whispering’ claiming that the girls were not abducted. She added that although the whereabouts of the girls was unknown, the group strongly hoped that the girls would one day return safely to their expectant parents.
Obe also condemned the tagging of the young girls who reportedly detonated explosives in the north as ‘Suicide bombers’. She said it was more appropriate to refer to them as ‘bomb carriers’ as they were compelled and brainwashed to do so.

The group was received by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode who promised to give his full support to the demand of the members. He said his government was committed to taking care of the refugees who fled the affected areas in the north to Lagos. He said President Buhari was also committed to getting the girls’ back as emphasized in his inaugural speech.


The governor said: “I sympathize with the parents (of the abducted girls) and understand how they feel. I am committed to their (refugees in Lagos) upkeep”.

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Revealed: We Located Chibok Girls But Couldn't Rescue Them - British High Commissioner

The outgoing British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock revealed Britain located the Chibok girls shortly after they were kidnapped by members of the Boko Haram sect but they couldn't rescue them for security reasons.

The outgoing British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock on the 7th of July made a shocking revelation about the Chibok girls before journalists in Kaduna state while visiting the State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai.

According to him, the British government located the missing Chibok girls a few months after they were abducted from their school hostel but they couldn't rescue them. Their inability centered around the nature of the operation which would have posed a grave danger to the lives of the girls as they were manned by the abductors.

 “Our ability to return the Chibok girls is very limited. Well, after the abduction for some months it was clear that substantial group of girls were together. It was also clear that they were by no means all of them. It might be a group of 50 or 80; it’s very hard to tell. It presented a terrible dilemma to everybody, attempting to rescue substantial group of girls has two obvious problems; the risk to the attackers and to the girls.”

Futhermore, he said “It was possible that Boko Haram would have killed those girls. And I am not sure whether the military capacity existed for the rescue of these girls. So even though it was possible to say where some of the girls might have been, they were beyond rescue in practical terms. I think the only way for the return of the girls in my personal opinion is through the defeat of Boko Haram.”

He suggested the Nigerian government shouldn't rely solely on a military approach to conquer Boko Haram but also focus on economic measures as Nigeria is blighted with poverty and massive unemployment especially in the north-eastern part of the country.

On an ending note he discouraged any plans by the government to dialogue with the sect.

“I don’t think we will advocate talking to people that abduct innocent civilians and cut peoples throat on video and show it to the rest of the world. But what we could be talking about is disarmament and rehabilitation process for those who are willing to put down their weapons,”  he added.

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