There
is a strong indication that the United Kingdom is withholding
intelligence information as regard the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls
kidnapped by Boko Haram since April 14, 2014.
The girls, until their abduction, were pupils of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
The British government claimed that
revealing details of what it found about the whereabouts of the abducted
girls would clearly damage its relationship with Nigeria and other
allies.
This revelation came after a UK-based
group, Security in Africa, through its founder, Ben Oguntala, wrote the
British Ministry of Defence to request for information on the Chibok
girls.
“The information was sent on January 30
this year and the UK government has 20 days to comply. They do have a
defence of national security and that would prevent them from disclosing
the information. Let’s hope they don’t. If they rely on national
security defence, we can raise the matter with the Information
Commissioner’s office to determine if their claim of national security
is reasonable,” Oguntala told our correspondent while requesting for the
information.
The SIA founder, who had earlier in
January this year said it was setting up a taskforce to go to Sambisa
Forest to secure the release of the abducted schoolgirls, requested from
the UK government to know the “results and reports of the British Armed
Forces, the details of where they searched and the results of their
findings.
“We also seek to have the details of the
technology, technique or methodology used in the search and the
consequential results,” he wrote in his request letter.
But, in a letter from the MOD’s
Permanent Joint Headquarters in Middlesex, dated February 25, a copy of
which was made available to our correspondent, the British government
said some of the information requested by Oguntala “falls entirely
within the scope of the qualified exemption provided for at section 27
(International Relations) of the FOIA and has been withheld.”
It said, “Section 27 is a qualified
exemption and is subject to public interest testing which means that the
information requested can only be withheld if the public interest in
doing so outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
“Section 27(1)(a), (1)(c) and (2) have
been applied because some of the information has the potential to
adversely affect relations with our allies. The Public Interest Test
concluded that whilst release would increase public understanding and
confidence in the relation the United Kingdom has with other
international states in its assistance with operations, the balance of
the public interest lay in withholding the information you desire.
“We have considered it necessary to
apply the higher level of prejudice against release of the exempted
information at the higher level of ‘would’ rather than ‘would be likely
to’ adversely affect relations with our allies.”
The British defence ministry stated that
it would not release the details of where the UK soldiers searched and
the results of their findings.
It however shared details of the “technology, technique or methodology” used in the search.
According to the MOD, the RAF Sentinel
R1 and Tornado aircraft were used to “provide imagery and other data as
part of a combined effort with Nigeria and other nations.”
The Sentinel R1 is the UK Royal Air
Force’s only long-range wide area battlefield surveillance asset,
providing critical intelligence and target tracking information to
British and Coalition forces.
“After the 1990 Gulf War, it was
identified by the allies that Intelligence, Surveillance and
Reconnaissance had played a key role in the success of this operation.
In particular, the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar and Ground Moving
Target Indicator had proved invaluable in the tracking and prosecution
of enemy ground forces. This galvanised the UK to acquire its own
capability and in 1993 the requirement was endorsed by the MOD,” the RAF
said on its website.
Not deterred by the response of the MOD,
Oguntala said his group would also approach the British Prime Minister
to “reveal what he can about the Chibok girls.”
“I have had several persons suggesting
that I drop the matter and claiming Boko Haram is being used by
political players. This information request approach means if the
British government declares what it knows, there will be no place for
Nigerian political players to hide,” he said.
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