Every Nigerian citizen hope that a useful information about the kidnapped Chibok Girls could be made available so as to facilitate their release. But it looks like this hope is dying off since even United Kingdom is withholding vital intelligence information as regard the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls--of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State--kidnapped by Boko Haram sect since April 14, 2014.
The British government has claimed that revealing details of what it found about the whereabouts of the abducted girls would clearly damage its relationship with Nigeria and other allies, Punch reports.
This revelation came after a UK-based group, Security in Africa, through its founder, Ben Oguntala, wrote the British Ministry of Defence to request for information on the Chibok girls.
Speaking to Punch, Oguntala said, “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."
However, in a letter from the MOD’s Permanent Joint Headquarters in Middlesex, dated February 25, a copy of which was made available to Punch, 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.”
The British government has claimed that revealing details of what it found about the whereabouts of the abducted girls would clearly damage its relationship with Nigeria and other allies, Punch reports.
This revelation came after a UK-based group, Security in Africa, through its founder, Ben Oguntala, wrote the British Ministry of Defence to request for information on the Chibok girls.
Speaking to Punch, Oguntala said, “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."
Read what the section says below...
“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.“We have considered it necessary to apply the higher level of prejudice against release of the exempted information at the higher level of ‘would’ rather than ‘would be likely to’ adversely affect relations with our allies.” The British defence ministry stated. But shared details of the “technology, technique or methodology” used in the search.
According to the MOD, the RAF Sentinel R1(UK Royal Air Force’s only long-range wide area battlefield surveillance asset, providing critical intelligence and target tracking information to British and Coalition forces) and Tornado aircraft were used to “provide imagery and other data as part of a combined effort with Nigeria and other nations.”
Via: Punch
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