Eeben Barlow who is a mercenary and the chairman of a private army, Specialized Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection International, in an interview with Al Jazeera, claimed that the United States, who sponsored Buhari’s campaign in 2015, influenced the President to terminate the Chibok Girls Rescue Mission.
In a report by the PUNCH news on Tuesday, January 7, Barlow stated that President Buhari gave in to the heavy pressure to abort the mission due to his obligation to US government that sponsored his campaign.
A total number of 112 girls had remained in Boko Haram’s captivity, while 107 were rescued through negotiations and 57 escaped.
Barlow disclosed that under former President Jonathan, his army which were engaged to rescue the abducted girls, later deviated to combating Boko Haram, a move to boost Jonathan’s second term ambition.
He said,
“Our initial aim was not Boko Haram per se, it was to rescue the Chibok girls. They were the girls that were kidnapped and the Western response was #Savethegirls (#BringBackOurGirls). That type of nonsense does not save girls.
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“Unfortunately, these girls became victims of a situation where the security had broken down in a specific area, they were kidnapped and that was the first mission – rescue the Chibok girls.”
He said, “We ended a selection process of the Nigerian soldiers, the soldiers were retained after a selection process, they were trained in a specific way to conduct a hostage rescue operation.
Barlow also disclosed how he had trained his army including Nigerian soilders for the mission to rescue the girls, which was later teminated under President Buhari.
He stated;
“The operation was in three phases; the first phase was to cut a dividing line across the North-East and isolate Boko Haram into two isolated areas and mop up. One area in the South was the start and after that then mop up in the North. The division will follow behind and occupy terrain.
“But we were never allowed to execute the entire operation. In one month, we took back terrain larger than the terrain of Belgium from Boko Haram. We were not allowed to finish because it came at a time that governments were in the process of changing.”
“Buhari was heavily supported by a foreign government and one of the first missions was to terminate our contract.
“We were told it was the US and they had actually funded President Buhari’s campaign and his campaign manager from the US.
However, Barlow did not State why the United States may have instigated the termination of the rescue mission.
According to him, certain foreign interest must have clashed with the local interest of Nigeria to have resulted in the termination of the rescue of girls who are the victims of circumstances and political games.
He said:
“I think the US can answer that, I have come to realise that when a foreign interest clashes with a state’s interest and domestic interest, conflict is bound to ensue and those conflicts continue with no end.”
“I’m not saying the US is bad, I understand foreign interests but I’d have thought that a threat like Boko Haram on the integrity of Nigeria ought to be a priority but it wasn’t.”