Five months after the release of abducted Dapchi school girls, the United Nations Security Council has countered the claims of the Nigerian government that no payment was made for the release of the girls by Boko Haram.

Following the release of the Dapchi School girls who were released in March after about one month in captivity, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed told journalists in Maiduguri that they were released through back-door channel negotiations and no money was paid for their release.

Alhaji Mohammed said all the 106 persons were freed unconditionally, contrary to reports in a section of the media that ransom was paid and that some insurgents were swapped for the freed persons.

”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,” he said.

However, the claims of the Nigerian government were countered by UN Security Council 22nd Report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, pursuant to resolution 2368 (2017) concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated individuals and entities.

The report was submitted to the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities.

It was signed by Edmund Fitton-Brown, Coordinator, Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, who said the report was “comprehensive and independent”, and Kairat Umarov, Chair, Security Council Committee.

The report said: “The predominance in the region of the cash economy, without controls, is conducive to terrorist groups funded by extortion, charitable donations, smuggling, remittances and kidnapping.

“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.

It said the number of doctrinally based non-governmental organisations sending funds to local terrorist groups was growing, and Member States were concerned that radicalisation was increasing the threat level in the Sahel.

The report said: “Meanwhile, Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, have had a similar impact in their areas of control, including the Lake Chad basin.

•Sourced from Nigerian Pilot report

Update news