Nigeria - The United Kingdom has reacted to reports by The Observer that former president; Goodluck Jonathan refused help in rescuing the abducted Chibok girls describing it as false.
The British Armed Forces had reportedly offered to rescue the girls and had conducted air reconnaissance in a mission named Operation Turus over the region where the girls were believed to have been moved to, but Jonathan was said to have refused their help.
A source involved in the rescue mission was quoted to have told The Observer that, “The girls were located in the first few weeks of the RAF mission.
“We offered to rescue them, but the Nigerian government declined.
"The aircraft continued to track the girls, as they were broken into smaller groups over the following months."
Jonathan however reacted to the allegation insisting it was false as his administration actually requested help from the international communities to battle insurgency.
The statement said: “Our attention has been drawn to a report that has been trending, without proper attribution, to the effect that the last administration rebuffed British offer to rescue the kidnapped Chibok school girls.
“We wish to promptly point out that nothing can be further from the truth, as Nigerians are conversant with the effort made by the Jonathan administration towards rescuing the Chibok girls, especially in relation to collaborating with the international community.
“We can confidently say that the lies in this report are self evident. This is because the international press as well as the Nigeria media actively covered the multinational efforts and collaboration which involved some of the major powers deploying their crack intelligence officers to work with our own security operatives, and those of our neighbours.”
This Day reports that the British high commission in Abuja responded on Tuesday, March 7 describing the report as false.
Mathew Rycroft who is the ambassador said he was briefed on the matter and the allegations were not true.
“The British High Commissioner briefed me on that today (Monday) and said that the allegations are not true.”
“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.”
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