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UK to investigate Links Between Boko Haram and APC

Published

10 years ago

July 13, 2014

The UK government may be forced to probe allegations of links between APC and the dreaded Boko Haram sect following the increasing questioning of the government by Members of Parliament (MP).
According to TheCable report, after a debate in parliament in which Labour MP Sandra Osborne sought to examine allegations of links between APC and the insurgents, another prominent member of the British parliament, Mr. Andrew Rosindell questioned the UK foreign secretary, Mr. William Hague, on the UK’s engagement with Nigeria’s leading opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), over the Boko Haram menace.
Rosindell, sent in his queries called “notices”, relating to Boko Haram, on Tuesday, July 8 which are listed below:
– To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will commission an inquiry into the international support network for Boko Haram in Nigeria and Cameroon; and if he will make a statement. (Notice no. 204402)
– To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department have had with leading members of the Nigerian opposition party, the All Progressive Congress; and if he will make a statement. (204401)
– To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the rise in Islamic terrorism in Nigeria. (204387)
– To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department plans to offer to Nigeria in tackling the threat of Boko Haram. (204388)
– To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of links between Boko Haram and other Islamic extremist groups in Africa. (204389)
– To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will discuss with his counterpart in Cameroon the need for constructive dialogue between that country and Nigeria in tackling Boko Haram; and if he will make a statement.
Hague is mandated to formally respond to these queries on behalf of the British government in the coming weeks.
There’ s been insinuations that some members of APC were linked to Boko Haram. Recently, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, a former member of APC who defected to PDP, said Boko Haram was the armed wing of APC.
Meanwhile the APC has continuously denied these allegations, while also playing the blame game and accusing the PDP of playing politics with the nation’s security.
After the abduction of of more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, on 14th April, the UK became more involved in Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram