The British High Commission in Abuja has debunked a report by London-based Observer newspaper, which reported at the weekend that the government of President Goodluck Jonathan rejected the offer by the British Royal Armed Force (RAF) to help rescue over 200 Chibok schoolgirls, when they were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014.
In response to enquiries by THISDAY’s sister broadcast station, Arise News Network, the British High Commission on Tuesday said the allegation that the RAF was over the area for a number of months and actually located the girls within weeks, but the Nigerian government under former President Jonathan turned down its offer to rescue the girls, “was false”.
Also reinforcing this, the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Security Council and head of the delegation to the Lake Chad region, Ambassador Mathew Rycroft, dismissed the allegation when the question was put forward to him during a press briefing on Monday.
“The British High Commissioner briefed me on that today (Monday) and said that the allegations are not true,” Rycroft said.
When pressed for further clarifications by Arise TV, he directed all enquiries to the British High Commissioner to Nigeria.
However, the British High Commission, in its statement, said “a more cordial, collaborative and unified approach between Nigeria and her allies than the reported differences was used”.
The statement added: “UK worked with the US and France to provide a range of military and intelligence support to the Nigerian government in their search (for the Chibok girls), and in fact, a wider effort to address the longer term challenge of terrorism.
“But importantly, we won’t comment on specific additional details, which is a matter for the Nigerian government and the military.”
Jonathan, in reaction to the story, has already dismissed the allegation as patently false.
Speaking on the overall objective of the visit, Rycroft said the Boko Haram crisis was “one of the most neglected crisis and we want to shine a spotlight on that crisis”.
