A former British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Andrew Pocock has disclosed that both the British and United States governments knew where some of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram members were but could not act as expected.

Pocock while speaking with The Sunday Times explained that both governments knew the whereabout of the abducted girls but were powerless to launch a rescue mission, stressing that it was too risky.

He said, “A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American eye in the sky spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment.

“A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the girls killed, an air-based rescue, such as flying in helicopters or Hercules, would have required large numbers and meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more so to the girls.

“You might have rescued a few but many would have been killed. My personal fear was always about the girls not in that encampment — 80 were there, but 250 were taken, so the bulk were not there. What would have happened to them? You were damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

DAILY POST recalls that members of Boko Haram sect had in 2014 abducted over 200 girls from a boarding school in Chibok, in Borno State and they have since remained missing.