Claim that a politician sponsors Boko Haram comes as British MPs and soldiers call for Common wealth intervention in Nigeria
London October 14) - Britain and the Commonwealth should help provide Nigeria with military assistance to tackle the brutal forces of Boko Haram, say a coalition of former government ministers and senior military personnel.
In a letter signed by the former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a call was made for a co-ordinated Commonwealth-led military assistance programme for the Nigerian forces in their campaign against Boko Haram. The letter also called for increased international intelligence support and training for the Nigerian government and military.
It was published today in ‘The Independent' six months after 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Islamist extremists in northern Nigeria.
Despite an international campaign to find the girls, no diplomatic or military progress has been made to secure their release.
"Today," said the letter which was signed by the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Lord (Paddy) Ashdown and the former Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, "more than 200 teenage girls will spend their sixth month in captivity, somewhere near the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, scared, hurt and alone . . . The days have turned into weeks and the weeks into months. The world was too slow to act when on the night of 14 April 2014 evil descended on a secondary school in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. Boko Haram terrorists, disguised as soldiers, kidnapped 276 female students from their beds at gunpoint. We stand here together united with our Commonwealth partners, the Nigerian Government and the international community to do all we can to bring them back to their families."