The mother of a British hostage murdered by Boko Haram fanatics has backed a swap deal to free his killers in return for the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls.

Laura McManus – whose son Chris, 28, was shot dead as troops backed by British special forces closed in on his captors – said everything possible must be done to save the 200-plus girls.

She said: “Chris is not coming back but these girls have a chance of coming back.

“Anything that can stop them being killed is worth it. We need get the girls back and argue the politics after.”

Mrs McManus, 58, from Oldham, added: “When Chris was kidnapped we had all the support we could need. These girls’ parents have been abandoned up until this point.

“The girls have been made to feel insignificant but their lives are just as important.”

Mr McManus was snatched while working as an engineer in Nigeria. He was held for 10 months and paraded on TV by the Muslim hardliners until he was shot in 2012. His killers were caught but are thought to have been earmarked for a hostage swap.

British-born alleged Boko Haram leader Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche has been held in Sudan on suspicion of being behind bomb blasts in Nigerian capital Abuja.

•Credit (except headline): Daily Express. Photo shows some of the kidnapped girls as showed in a Boko Haram video, late Chris McManus and demonstrators seeking action to rescue the abducted girls.