Boko Haram allegedly got paid N500 million to release French family kept hostage

Boko Haram were paid N500 million ($3.15 million) to free seven French hostages kidnapped in February, a confidential document from the Nigerian government available to Reuters states.

The insurgent group kidnapped the French hostages in Cameroon on February 19 near Wasa National Park in Northern Cameroon, which borders North-Eastern Nigeria.

The hostages, a family of seven including four children, are believed to have been brought into Borno State after the kidnap. They were released two months after the kidnap on April 19.

The document, according to Reuters, did not state who paid the ransom although French and Cameroonian authorities denied that any ransom was paid.

The Negotiations

Apart from the money the insurgents were paid, the document states, Cameroonian authorities also released some Boko Haram suspects in detention as part of the deal.

The sect had threatened, in a video released on YouTube in March, to kill the hostages unless Nigeria and Cameroon release some of its members in custody.

The report also states that Abubakar Shekau, the sect's leader had asked for N1 billion to free the hostages but finally accepted half of the money, after agreeing to the release of his members in Cameroonian jails as part of the deal.

French President, Francois Hollande, denied that any ransom was paid when the hostages were released, same as Cameroonian authorities. No one has, however, said what got the insurgents to release the hostages.

Boko Haram is blamed for killings of several hundreds of people in Northern Nigeria and has claimed responsibility for several attacks.

Efforts to get the federal government to react to the report were unsuccessful. The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, and his spokesperson, Joseph Mutah, could not be reached as their telephone numbers were not reachable on Friday evening.

The spokespersons to the Nigerian President, Reuben Abati and Doyin Okupe, did not pick or return calls to their phone as at press time.

According to Reuters, the report suggests that the ransom was paid because officials did not want to endanger the lives of the hostages in a rescue attempt; after a rescue attempt last year March to save a Briton and an Italian hostage kidnapped by another Nigerian sect, Ansaru, led to the death of the hostages.

A rich Boko Haram

Apart from waging a war against the Nigerian Government, Christians and Muslims opposed to his terrorist acts, Boko Haram has also delved into kidnapping for ransom, largely to finance its operations. Apart from kidnapping for ransom, the group also robs banks in Northern Nigeria to finance its operations.

PREMIUM TIMES had also exclusively reported how a security report sent to the Nigerian Presidency last year showed that Boko Haram got N40 million from an Algerian terrorist sect as part of a long term international terrorism collaboration.

Premium Times

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Authorities in Lagos have discovered the fifth illegal methamphetamine production centre in just one year, deepening fears Nigeria is a narcotics hub and part of a worldwide network.
The anti-drugs agency says the West African country is producing meth on a large scale.
The highly addictive drug is known by several names, including meth, ice and crystal. It is usually injected, but it can also be smoked or inhaled.
Mild doses can increase alertness and concentration, but high doses can cause psychological problems including paranoia and hallucinations.
Nigeria used to be a transit point through which illegal drugs from Mexico passed on their way to Europe.
Mitchell Ofojeyu, a spokesman for the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, said: "They have an international network because they're bringing in Bolivians into West Africa to produce Methamphetamine; [it] shows the synergy the drug cells in West Africa have with their counterparts in other regions of the world."

In an exclusive report, Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow visits the lab where the methods of concealment for the drug dealers are as diverse as the narcotics they traffic.
Reporting from Lagos, Adow said: "While manufacturing drugs is a new phenomenon in Nigeria using it as a trafficking hub is not."

English couple caught smuggling Nigerian baby into the UK

An English couple – Simon and Gladys Heap from Oxford – have been convicted by a UK court for attempting to pass off a Nigerian baby as their biological child in a bid to smuggle it into the UK.

The couple was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and 250 hours of community service after pleading guilty on April 16, 2013.

Gladys aged 52 and her husband, 47, had entered Nigeria in July 2010 and had gone to the British High Commission in Lagos to apply for a British passport for the baby girl claiming Gladys had a baby just a few days after entering the country.
According to the British High Commission in Abuja, the staff at the High Commission were however suspicious.

"...DNA tests later confirmed that neither adult was related to the child. A birth certificate they had presented was also found to be fraudulent. They flew home without the baby," the statement issued in Abuja yesterday said.
Although the statement was silent on how the couple came about the child, it implied that the child may have been purchased.

Following an investigation by a joint Border Force and Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), the couple was arrested and charged with facilitating a breach of immigration law. They were sentenced by the Isleworth Crown Court.

The head of the Border Force at Heathrow, Mr. Marc Owen, described the case as shocking. “Thanks to the close co-operation between Border Force, the Metropolitan Police and staff at the British High Commission they were stopped and we were able to bring them to justice,” he said.

The leader of the investigation team, Detective Inspector Kate Bridger, said the couple tried to circumvent the adoption system and deceive the authorities.


“A child should not be treated as a commodity to be bought and sold," she said, adding that the system is in place to protect children. The child has remained in Nigeria.
Heap, an expert on Nigeria, works with companies trying to forge international trade links. His wife is a nurse.

Heap has a BA in History from Cambridge University, an MA in African Studies from the University of London and a PhD in History from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He also studied History at Oxford University.

He has previously worked as a researcher for child rights organisation, Plan International; a fellow at the University of Ibadan and is currently a senior researcher at the development agency Japan International Cooperation Agency.

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