UK Keeping Information About Chibok Girls For Safety

There are strong indications that the United Kingdom is trying to keep information about the over 200 Chibok school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram since April 14, 2014.

These indications came to light when a UK-based group, Security in Africa, through its founder, Ben Oguntala, decided to write the British Ministry of Defence to request for information on the kidnapped girls. Punch reports that the British government made it known that what was found out about the whereabouts pf the girls might cause damage to its once platonic relationship with Nigeria and some other countries.

“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 newsmen while requesting for the information.

The SIA founder, had few months back tried to organize a task force to go to Sambisa Forest in order to secure the release of the abducted schoolgirls which made him 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.

In his request letter, Ogundele sought to have the details of the technology, technique or methodology used in the search and the consequential results. However, in a letter from the MOD’s Permanent Joint Headquarters in Middlesex, dated February 25, 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.