“I wasn’t hired by the Nigerian government” – Stephen Davis Allegedly States

Over the past couple of days, Australian hostage negotiator, Stephen Davis, has been embroiled in quite a bit of controversy over his allegations about Boko Haram’s source of funding.

Davis has repeatedly stated that he was in Nigeria for four months, acting as a Boko Haram hostage negotiator to help free the Chibok girls. It was during the said negotiations that he claimed to have discovered that the terrorist group was being funded by prominent Nigerian politicians including,  Ali Modu Sheriff.  He also alleged that funds were being transferred via CBN.

The federal government via a statement last week, denied hiring Davis as a Boko Haram hostage negotiator.

And now, Vanguard has published an interview that Soni Daniel allegedly had with Davis.

Read excerpts:

On whether he was hired by the Nigerian government

I was not engaged by the Federal Government of Nigeria, any state government or any other party. I went to Nigeria in late April in an effort to facilitate a handover of the Chibok captives after discussing such a possibility with former commanders of JAS (Jama’atu Ahlul Sunnah Lih Da’awa wal Jihad otherwise known as JAS) and others close to Boko Haram.

On why he thinks Nigerian politicians are sponsoring Boko Haram

The political sponsors of Boko Haram seem to think that they can use Boko Haram to terrorise Nigeria to demonstrate that the current government cannot ensure the security of Nigerian citizens both Muslim and Christian. Therein the sponsors assume they can undermine any efforts of the current government to be re-elected in 2015. Herein lies the flaw for the conflict and instability currently being fanned suits the aims of Al Qa’eda and the architects of terrorism. Should the sponsors of Boko Haram win government in 2015, they will likely find that they cannot turn Boko Haram off or that Boko Haram will demand control of at least Borno State in return for reducing their attacks. Borno State may be just the beginning of an expanding caliphate.

Read more from the interview here