Dapchi Girls: UN Report Calls Nigerian Minister, Lai Mohammed A Liar

UN Report Says Nigeria Paid Ransom To Get Dapchi Girls Released

The United Nations has revealed that the Nigerian government through the Information Minister Lai Mohammed lied that they didn’t pay any ransom to free scores of female students kidnapped by the Boko Haram from their school in Dapchi .

It would be recalled that Naija News reported that Over 100 girls were kidnapped from the Dapchi school by a Boko Haram faction in February this year with about 105 of them later released by the terrorists.

One of them, Leah Sharibu, who reportedly refused to denounce her Christian faith, is still with the abductors.

Following the release of the girls, about a month after they were kidnapped, Mr Mohammed told journalists that it was not true ransom was paid for their release.

‘’It is not true that we paid ransom for the release of the Dapchi girls, neither was there a prisoner swap to secure their release,” “What happened was that the abduction itself was a breach of the ceasefire talks between the insurgents and the government; hence it became a moral burden on the abductors. Any report that we paid ransom or engaged in prisoner swap is false.”

UN Report Says Nigerian Government Paid Huge Ransom To Free Dapchi Girls Earlier This Year

The report recently submitted to the UN Security Council on Boko Haram and related terrorist organisations, said such ransom and the predominance of cash economy was providing oxygen for the insurgency around the Lake Chad region.

The UN report is titled “22nd Report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team”, related to Resolution 2368 (2017) regarding “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – ISIL – (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities.”

“In Nigeria, 111 schoolgirls from the town of Dapchi were kidnapped on 18 February 2018 and released by ISWAP on 21 March 2018 in exchange for a large ransom payment,” the report stated.

The UN report negates the Nigerian government’s stance and that of the military in the on-going fight against Boko Haram terorists.

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