A US media report has quoted an unnamed official as saying the State Department under Hillary Clinton argued in 2012 that adding Boko Haram to the terrorist list would cause more harm than good and would make US interests a target of the group’s attacks.

The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that other US government agencies, including the CIA, along with several members of Congress had called on the State Department when Clinton was secretary of state to officially designate the Nigerian group a terrorist organization.

“The one thing she could have done, the one tool she had at her disposal, she didn’t use. And nobody can say she wasn’t urged to do it. It’s gross hypocrisy,” a former senior US official who was involved in the debate told the Daily Beast. “The FBI, the CIA, and the Justice Department really wanted Boko Haram designated, they wanted the authorities that would provide to go after them, and they voiced that repeatedly to elected officials.”

After Clinton stepped down and John Kerry took office, the US designated Boko Haram as a terrorist organization.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has vowed to sell hundreds of schoolgirls abducted in the village of Chibok, in Borno state, north Nigeria, last month.

"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market" Shekau said in a new video.

The kidnappings have sparked numerous protests throughout Nigeria. Parents have grown increasingly frustrated by what they perceive as a feckless governmental response. Some relatives have launched their own search, riding motorcycles deep into the surrounding forests in search of their girls.

RA/MB