The outgoing British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock revealed Britain located the Chibok girls shortly after they were kidnapped by members of the Boko Haram sect but they couldn't rescue them for security reasons.
Dr. Andrew Pocock
The outgoing British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock on the 7th of July made a shocking revelation about the Chibok girls before journalists in Kaduna state while visiting the State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
According to him, the British government located the missing Chibok girls a few months after they were abducted from their school hostel but they couldn't rescue them. Their inability centered around the nature of the operation which would have posed a grave danger to the lives of the girls as they were manned by the abductors.
“Our ability to return the Chibok girls is very limited. Well, after the abduction for some months it was clear that substantial group of girls were together. It was also clear that they were by no means all of them. It might be a group of 50 or 80; it’s very hard to tell. It presented a terrible dilemma to everybody, attempting to rescue substantial group of girls has two obvious problems; the risk to the attackers and to the girls.”
Futhermore, he said “It was possible that Boko Haram would have killed those girls. And I am not sure whether the military capacity existed for the rescue of these girls. So even though it was possible to say where some of the girls might have been, they were beyond rescue in practical terms. I think the only way for the return of the girls in my personal opinion is through the defeat of Boko Haram.”
He suggested the Nigerian government shouldn't rely solely on a military approach to conquer Boko Haram but also focus on economic measures as Nigeria is blighted with poverty and massive unemployment especially in the north-eastern part of the country.
On an ending note he discouraged any plans by the government to dialogue with the sect.
“I don’t think we will advocate talking to people that abduct innocent civilians and cut peoples throat on video and show it to the rest of the world. But what we could be talking about is disarmament and rehabilitation process for those who are willing to put down their weapons,” he added.