Abuja– Barely ten months after the release of a batch of 82 of
the abducted Chibok secondary school girls, investigation shows that the entire
negotiations may have been nothing but a huge scam.
DAILY INDEPENDENT investigation that covered Nigeria, Switzerland,
Chad, Niger and Cameroon has conclusively shown that Nigerian officials and
Swiss agents involved in the clandestine talks to free the girls who were
abducted from Borno State by the Boko Haram insurgents have turned the
negotiations into an illicit goldmine.
Remarkably, this offshore and on-shore investigations have
rubbished claim by federal authorities that no ransom was paid to secure
freedom for the two batches of the 276 abducted Chibok girls already released
by Boko Haram as it has been proved that millions of dollars were actually paid
to secure their release.
Most of all, DAILY INDEPENDENT sources uncovered the face behind
the mask in the negotiations. He is Swiss Foreign Service agent, Pascal
Holliger. But he is not alone as he has been working closely with some
Nigerians and other foreigners in a labyrinthine way that reaches to other
countries and involves various organisations. To give them an absolute cover of
decency, the negotiations have been spearheaded by the Swiss government,
ostensibly on humanitarian grounds.
Yet, as the whole process had been enmeshed in secrecy Red
Cross, the only visible entity, has always insisted that its role was limited
to mediation and confidence building “as a neutral intermediary and not
involved in the negotiation” between the parties.
A thorough professional, Holliger graduated from the Institute
of International Studies (IHEID), Geneva, Switzerland, under the tutelage of
Jean Pierre Gontard, the renowned Swiss mediator with FARC (The Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas
Revolucionarias de Colombia). As a staff of the Swiss Foreign Ministry’s Human
Security Division, Holliger’s intelligence journey started with his deployment
in South Africa, where he established his two NGOs, IMBEWU and Latitudes, that
are ostensibly engaged in humanitarian works; the first provides education to
disadvantaged children while the second helps them become professionals.
But as Nigeria’s North East region gained international
notoriety and significance on the global intelligence chessboard, Holliger was
deployed to Nigeria as a political officer.
There is also an unsubstantiated claim that Holliger’s lobby in
the country coincided with pressure on former President Goodluck Jonathan in
2014 to negotiate the release of the school girls from their captors.
Indeed, ransom payment to terrorists by governments all over the
world have remained a recurring allegation, governments have officially denied
such payment. The Nigerian government has been no different; it has always
denied the payment of ransom to insurgent groups toward securing release of
high profile captives like the Chibok girls, the reality is entirely a
different proposition.
As a matter of fact since the abduction of the 276 Chibok girls
from their school dormitories by Boko Haram in 2014, the saga has become a
goldmine for different state and non-state actors with different motives, all
looking for roles in the rescue of the girls.
Recall that President Goodluck Jonathan, under intense
international pressure in the fall of 2014 sought the assistance of Chadian
President Idris Derby to secure release of the abducted girls.
Armed with a war chest of $2 million, his Special Emissary,
Ambassador Hassan Tukur, was confident of his mission to Ndjamena. That was
until alleged political consideration got in the way, the belief that if
successful, the mission would enhance chances of the incumbent leader in the
2015 general election among others.
This failed mission also trained international attention on
Idris Derby as the intelligence community began to study him in great detail –
because anybody that could undertake such a mission must have a relationship
with the Boko Haram insurgents, the intelligence community reasoned.
Many of the intelligence reports have suggested that Derby has
surprisingly close relationship with insurgents across the sub-region. But such
allegations are hard to substantiate.
What made the difference though with the involvement of the
Swiss is that they have often succeeded where others fail, an intelligence
source told DAILY INDEPENDENT.
Holliger, in a bid to have a foot hold in the Nigerian North
East, was said to have partnered the Saudis who already had an agent in
Maiduguri, by name Zannah Mustapha.
A lawyer, Mustapha was running a private school in the Borno
State capital — Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School. The school was
established by International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO), Jeddah, which,
surprisingly, is listed in U.S. States Department’s charity organisations with
ties to terrorism.
Our source disclosed that Mustapha had a long standing
relationships with Boko Haram leadership, as a member and strong sympathiser of
the Salafi-Wahabbi group. Again, this allegation is hard to confirm as secrecy
is the mainstay of the cloak and dagger world of espionage and
counter-espionage.
The investigation showed that Holliger recruited Mustapha and
sent him to Switzerland for training in the act of soft intervention in the
world’s conflict zones.
At the completion of his training he returned to Nigeria, now to
serve as a valuable asset in the negotiations.
Holliger did not stop there. According to a Senior Counter
Intelligence Officer with National Intelligence Agency (NIA), who is vast in
the intelligence game, “Holliger is an interesting character and very
professional agent who exploits to the maximum and penetrated Nigerian
political establishments at the highest level”.
It did not take much time for the Swiss to be on first name terms
with presidency’s inner circle, Abba Kyari, Lawal Daura, the NSA DG and
Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, DAILY INDEPENDENT gathered.
And to further gain their confidence, Holliger was said to have
led a number of trips to his country in search of stolen funds that have links
to Nigerian ex-officials, top of them the Abacha loot.
The bond among Holliger and the inner circle in Aso Villa is
said to be so tight that national institutions like the Foreign Affairs
Ministry and the NIA were kept in the dark about Chibok girls’ negotiations.
Not even Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was fully briefed on the
details of the negotiations, our source claimed.
The investigation further showed that Holliger equally “enticed
Nigerian officials with offers of discreet Swiss Coded Accounts and financial
reward from the ransom money,” though no information emerged about who took the
bait.
The intelligence source added that the Chibok girls and other
cases of kidnapping for ransom in the region involving the Swiss and Nigerian
government officials are at huge costs.
Unfortunately, the investigation did not unearth exactly how
much was paid as ransom to secure the release of the 103 Chibok girls.
The Associated Press reported at the release of the 82 girls
last year that “a ‘handsome ransom’ in millions of dollars was paid by
Switzerland’s government on behalf of the Nigerian authorities. The Swiss would
recoup the money from some $321 million it had said it would repatriate to
Nigeria this year from frozen funds looted under former military dictator Sani
Abacha.”
Our source at NIA claimed that the report was deliberate
disinformation, purposely placed to deceive Nigerians. While corroborating the
position that ransom was indeed paid, he expressed doubt if the ransom would
not be paid in cash, as is the practice in intelligence circles, to avoid any
trace of the operations.
He also joked that Boko Haram insurgents would hardly operate
bank accounts.
“It is not true that the Swiss government will recoup from the
looted funds. What happened is the agent, Holliger and his cohorts would
collect the money in cash. The insurgents and their representatives cannot
accept wired money or the deal would fail”, the source noted.
Aside the 82 girls released in May last year, 21 of the Chibok
school girls had earlier regained their freedom to the delight of their
parents, Nigerians and foreigners.
And only recently, similar meditation and negotiations were
deployed to secure release of some abducted police women and University of
Maiduguri lecturers held by two insurgent groups. While the Abubakar Shekau-led
group allegedly released the ten policewomen, the UNIMAID lecturers where said
to have been released by the Mamman Nur/Al-Barnawi group.
There is even a broadening suspicion within intelligence circles
that the Chibok girls still in captivity may not be anywhere within the
country’s borders, or Sambisa forest, already devastated through aerial
bombardment by troops, but in a safe haven in a neighbouring country where they
have become cash cow for some officials, working in concert with negotiators to
squeeze scarce dollars from the government.
On the suspicion that the negotiators are just in it for the money
our source said, “Also they cannot take millions of Euros to some bandits and
terrorists without taking their cut. They have made the Chibok girls their cash
cow; know this that all the talk of Swiss humanitarian offer is at a price.
Also know that the Chibok girls are not under Shekau or any terrorist group.
They are safe and secure: the Swiss, Chadians and Cameroonians know this”, he
alleged.
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