Jonathan’s govt ‘rejected British offer’ to rescue Chibok girls

The administration of Goodluck Jonathan reportedly rejected the offer of British armed forces to help in rescuing the abducted Chibok girls.

According to the Observer, Britain was ready to rescue the Chibok girls from the Boko Haram insurgent group after their abduction in April 2014.

Britain’s royal air force was said to have conducted air reconnaissance over northern Nigeria for several months in a mission named Operation Turus.

“The girls were located in the first few weeks of the RAF mission. We offered to rescue them, but the Nigerian government declined,” a source involved in Operation Turus was quoted as saying.

According to the unnamed source, the girls were tracked by aircraft while they were being divided into smaller groups in the months after their kidnap.

The Observer reports that it obtained notes from meetings between UK and Nigerian officials through the Freedom of Information Act, which suggest that Nigeria rebuffed several international offers to rescue the girls.

Jonathan who lost the 2015 presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari has been, over time, criticised for not acting promptly in the early days of the Chibok girls’ captivity.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) had accused his administration of seeking to negotiate the timing of the release of the abducted Chibok girls to create a maximum public relations boost.