Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman
The Nigerian Army, hours after Boko Haram released a new video showing the abducted Chibok girls, has declared wanted citizen journalist Ahmed Salkida, who claimed Boko Haram exclusively gave him the video.
Salkida operates a twitter handle @ContactSalkida and blogs at http://www.salkida.com. He had on Sunday morning posted a video from the terror group. He had said on his twitter handle that the video was sent exclusively to him by Boko Haram before the insurgents uploaded it on Youtube. Two hours later he was declared wanted by the Army.
Also declared wanted are Ahmed U Bolori and Aisha Wakil.
In a statement in Abuja on Sunday, Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, said the wanted persons know the whereabouts of Boko Haram and the Chibok girls.
Bolori is known as coordinator of the Fa’ash Foundation and the Partnership Against Violent Extremism (Pave). While Wakil’s name has been consistently put forward by Boko Haram as one its negotiators. In the latest video, Boko Haram also insisted that the government should negotiate with those it has listed in the past including Wakil. She was a member of the Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the northern part of the country during President Jonathan’s administration.
Usman said: “Two recent incidents have pointed to the fact that, there are three individuals namely; Ahmed Salkida, (Ambassador) Ahmed U. Bolori and Aisha Wakil that have information on the conditions and the exact location of these girls.
“Therefore, the Nigerian Army hereby declares the two gentlemen and the lady wanted for interrogation. We are relying on the relevant laws of the land and in particular the Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 (as amended) where Nigerians could be punished for failure to disclose information about terrorists or terrorist’s activities. This becomes necessary as a result of their link with the last two videos released by Boko Haram Terrorists and other findings of our preliminary investigations.
“There is no doubt that these individuals have links with Boko Haram Terrorists and have contacts with them. They must therefore come forward and tell us where the group is keeping the Chibok Girls and other abducted persons to enable us rescue them.
“We are therefore calling on all Nigerians and peace loving people to give us useful information on their whereabouts. We are also liaising with other security agencies for their arrest if they failed to turn up,” he said.
What however remains unclear is where the Nigerian Army got the power in a democracy to declare people wanted.
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