The Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government insisted last night that it did not pay any ransom to secure the release of the Dapchi girls.
In a statement in Ilorin, Kwara State, Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed challenged anyone with any evidence of payment to publish such.
“It is not enough to say that Nigeria paid a ransom, little or huge. There must be a conclusive evidence to support such claim. Without that, the claim remains what it is: a mere conjecture.”
A report by the United Nations (UN) has claimed that the federal government paid “huge ransom” for the release of the kidnapped Dapchi schoolgirls in February.
The report also identified the predominance of cash economy as a major factor fuelling the nefarious activities of the Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in the Lake Chad Basin region
Titled “Letter dated 16 July 2018 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities addressed to the President of the Security Council,” was obtained from the UN’s official website yesterday.
Signed by the Coordinator, Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, Edmund Fitton-Brown, and the Chair, Security Council Committee, it stated that Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have had similar impact in their areas of control, including the Lake Chad basin.
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