activities and the risks he faced in trying to
rescue the Chibok girls
An international adviser from Australia
has opened up on his dangerous 4-month
stay in Nigeria.
63-year-old Stephen Davis has worked for 2
Nigerian presidents and established extensive
contact with terrorist groups in Africa.
According to him, when he found out about the
Chibok girls' abduction, he made a decision to
help. That decision almost cost him his life.
Davis said:
"When confronted by groups with an AK-47 in
my face they'd say, 'you are American, we have
to kill you',". "When you say, no I'm not
American, they think you are British, and say you
will still die, but when I said I'm Australian, they
said that's all right. "I have no idea why but it's
certainly been helpful."
"I made a few phone calls to the Boko Haram
commanders and they confirmed they were in
possession of the girls," he said.
"They told me they'd be prepared to release some
as a goodwill gesture towards a peace deal with
the government, so I went to Nigeria on the basis
of being able to secure their release."
"The girls were there, 60 girls, there were 20
vehicles with girls," he said.
"We travelled for four-and-a-half hours to reach
them, but 15 minutes before we arrived they
were kidnapped again by another group who
wanted to cash in on a reward.
"The police had offered a reward of several
million Naira just 24 hours before we went to
pick them up.
"I understand, from the Boko Haram
commanders I spoke to, the girls eventually
ended up back with them. I don't know what
happened to the group that took them but I
suspect it wasn't good."
"It became very clear that if I was able to get 50
girls released then another group would kidnap
70 or 80 more," he said. "So by freeing 50 you
were consigning 70 or 80 more to the same fate."
"Boko Haram used to telephone Nigerian
journalists and give them a story, but that
doesn't happen anymore," "They go straight to
social media. They post their own material and
they've learnt to become very savvy on social
media and use it as an instrument to terrorize."
Dr. Davis added that the only way to stop Boko
Haram is to cut off their funding, which according
to him is majorly gotten from bank raids and
Nigerian politicians.
"That makes it easier in some ways as they can be
arrested, but of course the onus of proof is high
and many are in opposition, so if the president
moves against them, he would be accused of
trying to rig the elections due early next year," he
said.
"So I think this will run through to the election
unabated.
"These politicians think that if they win power
they can turn these terrorists off, but this has
mutated.
"It's no longer a case of Muslims purifying by
killing off Christians. They are just killing
indiscriminately, beheading, disembowelling
people - men, women and children and whole
villages.
The over 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram on
April 14 have still not been found.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.