White Man Arrested In Sambisa Forest Is A Frenchman
By Concise News correspondents
The unknown white man captured by Nigerian soldiers in Sambisa forest during last week’s offensive on Boko Haram’s Sambisa forest headquarters is a Frenchman.
The frenchman is an engineer who specializes in repairing and unlocking of armoured personnel vehicles and other fighting equipment, DailyTrust, quoting authoritative military sources, said yesterday.
A source said the soldiers arrested the french engineer along the Bama axis of the Sambisa forest. The engineer agreed to give vital information if he’s spared.
“The man is under custody and providing positive information”, said a soldier, who just returned to Maiduguri from the liberated forest.
Real identity
The federal government as well as military authorities are concealing the white man’s identity for diplomatic reasons, disclosed a source.
Defence Headquarters has been silent on the development since the news broke last Friday. This happened shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari announced that troops had overran Boko Haram’s last stronghold in the Sambisa forest.
“I learnt that the white man is from France. Authorities do not want to make his real identity known for diplomatic reason. They also do not want to jeopardise the success recorded,” a military source disclosed to DailyTrust.
Incidentally, all Nigeria’s neighbours in the North East, namely Cameroon, Niger Republic as well as Chad are French speaking.
The French embassy in Nigeria did not respond to email and text message sent to it for comment yesterday.
