Nigeria-Breach Of Duty

NIGERIA

Breach of Duty

Nigeria had advance warning that Boko Haram was moving toward the town of Dapchi, yet failed to act to prevent the kidnapping of some 110 schoolgirls, Amnesty International alleged.

“The Nigerian authorities have failed in their duty to protect civilians, just as they did in Chibok four years ago,” Reuter’s quotedOsai Ojigho, Amnesty’s Nigeria director, as saying in a report issued Tuesday.

That earlier abduction, in which the Islamist militants kidnapped 276 students from the town of Chibok in 2014, awakened the world to Nigeria’s conflict with Boko Haram, now nine years old.

The latest failure could be disastrous for President Muhammadu Buhari, who won election in 2015 on a promise to make Nigerians safer than his predecessor had managed.

A military spokesman denied they received advance warning that the militants were in the area of Dapchi. But Amnesty alleged that the Nigerian army and police received at least five phone calls warning that Boko Haram was on the way to Dapchi as early as four hours before the attack.