By Abiodun Oluwarotimi, Leadership
New York — There are indications that the United States government will not comment over last week’s arrest of Mahamat Bichara Gnoti who is a political associate of President Idriss Déby Itno of Chad, for allegedly procuring weapons for members of the Boko Haram Sect.
Mr. Gnoti was reportedly arrested on the Chadian-Sudan border with 19 SAM2 missiles he allegedly purchased from the Sudanese army meant for the Boko Haram terrorist network in northeastern Nigeria.
The suspect who claimed that President Idriss Déby gave him the funds to purchase the weapons, had waved a presidential pass issued to him by Mr. Deby’s office in order to get past border guards but was stopped and searched by the guards who found the deadly weapons on him.
Independent investigations by our correspondent showed that the United States government under President Barrack Obama is still watching to know the true position of things before commenting. Unusually, the American government has decided to shun the incident despite that it happened more than 48 hours ago.
A reliable source within the White House told our correspondent during a telephone chat that this ‘unusual’ decision of the United States was borne out of the recent outburst of the Chairman of the Chibok community in Abuja, Tsambido Hosea-Abana, where he carpeted United States President, Barack Obama for condemning the recent Boko Haram attack on the troubled community.
In his outburst, Hosea-Abana who said he was speaking for the community asked the US leader to take action as a world leader to save the situation in the Northeast rather than condemning it.
According to reports, Hosea-Abana’s comment were said to have drawn the attention of the White House last week, and officials decided to let Nigeria play the lead before the US follows.
Our source who preferred not to be mentioned for fears of retribution said that the outburst was a sign of ungratefulness from the community to the United States government despite all that the America had been able to do to ensure the release of the female students that were kidnapped by the insurgents in April, 2014.
She added that such comments from Nigerians to Mr. Barrack Obama were uncalled for just as she asked if the US leader was the one that introduced insurgency to the northeastern Nigeria.
Asked why the White House has not reacted to the arrest, the US official clearly hinted that the American government wanted Nigeria to be on the lead in everything that has to do with Boko Haram and the kidnapped Chibok students.
Her words: “The US may not react to the incident as you demanded because the hit we got from the community (Chibok) last week was uncalled for. How could they say that Mr. Obama should not raise his voice against the acts of terrorism or was it the president that brought insurgents into the area? Certainly, we want our Nigerian counterpart to be on the lead in this matter and then we will follow.”
However, reactions have been flowing over the silence of President Obama since Mahamat Bichara Gnoti was arrested on the Chadian-Sudan border with 19 SAM2 missiles he purchased from the Sudanese army meant for the Boko Haram terrorist network in north-eastern Nigeria.
Our correspondent gathered during his investigation that such silence is not favourable as it means that the United States government is gradually taking its hands off the Chibok matter.
