We’re not funding B’Haram, Chad envoy tells BBOG

The Chadian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Isah Braimah, has absolved his country of funding or arming the Boko Haram insurgents and asked the #BringBackOurGirls coalition members, who visited his mission on Wednesday in Abuja, to meet the Federal Government for answers on the abducted Chibok girls. The envoy stated that his country had no inkling of the whereabouts of the over 200 Chibok girls who were abducted by the Boko Haram sect in April, 2014, stressing that it was only the Nigerian government that should be held responsible for the rescue of the schoolgirls. Some members of the BBOG had stormed the Chadian embassy located at Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday with banners, asking the Chadian government to explain its roles in the insurgency in the North-East. They also demanded a response to a media report that a close ally of the Chadian President had been arrested by Cameroonian gendarmes, with lethal arms meant for Boko Haram. The leader of the BBOG members, Aisha Yesufu, who led four representatives of the movement to the meeting with the ambassador, quoted Braimah as saying that Chad was not supporting Boko Haram insurgents in its war against Nigeria. According to Yesufu, the envoy accused the Nigeria Police Force of dragging the name of his county in the mud by alleging that it arrested a Chadian with arms. Yesufu said Braimah challenged the police to provide evidence of Chadian involvement in the terrorism in Nigeria. The BBOG leader, who briefed other coalition members after the meeting outside the Chadian embassy gate, stated that the ambassador could not provide satisfactory answers to many questions that were posed to him on the Boko Haram insurgency and his nation’s questionable roles. “The ambassador said the way Chadians practised Islam is different from Nigeria because Muslims co-exist peacefully with others. He said we should meet our government for answers on the Chibok girls and denied that his country was supporting or sponsoring Boko Haram,” Yesufu explained. She said that the group was advised to send a letter to President Idris Deby of Chad, who would be expected to give a detailed response to the BBOG’s inquiries. Yesufu added that her movement would also send a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, as advised by the envoy, to demand an update on the efforts being made to rescue the Chibok girls who had been in Boko Haram captivity for seven months. Earlier, the BBOG campaigners had a tough time entering the embassy, as stern-looking policemen and women from the FCT Police Command manned the embassy gate, thinking the campaigners wanted to foment trouble. But an embassy official discussed with the leaders of the BBOG and it was agreed that only five members would be allowed to have a meeting with the ambassador.