President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said that the Federal
Government had begun negotiations with members of the Boko Haram sect to
secure the release of the Chibok girls.
The President disclosed this while responding to questions from members
of the Nigerian community in France under the aegis of the Nigerians in
Diaspora Organisation.
Buhari said that he was worried by the continued stay of the girls in
the camps of Boko Haram since April 14, 2014 when they were abducted by
Boko Haram fighters.
The President noted that the incident had attracted global attention and
sympathy within Nigeria, adding that his government could not fold its
arms.
“The issue of Chibok girls has occupied our minds and because of the
international attention it drew and the sympathy throughout the the
world. The government is negotiating with some of the Boko Haram
leadership,” he stated.
According to him, government has to first establish genuine members of
the sect so that it will not make the mistake of engaging the wrong
persons.
Buhari said, “It is a very sensitive development in the sense that first
we have to establish whether they genuine leaders of Boko Haram? That
is number one. Number two, what are their terms, the first impression we
had was not very encouraging.”
The President said one of the conditions given by Boko Haram sect was to
release one of its members who was developing Improvised Explosives
Devices.
He, however, said that his government rejected the demand.
Buhari stated, “They wanted us to release one of their leaders who is a
strategic person in developing and making IEDs that is causing a lot of
havoc in the country by blowing people in churches, mosques, market
places, motor parks and other places. But it is very important that if
we are going to talk to anybody, we have to know how much he is worth.
“Let them bring all the girls and then, we will be prepared to
negotiate, I will allow them to come back to Nigeria or to be absorbed
into the community. We have to be very careful, the concern we have for
the Chibok girls, one can only imagine having a daughter who is between
14 and 18 years there for more than one and a half years. A lot of the
parents who have died would have preferred to see the graves of their
daughters to the condition they imagined they were in.”
According to him, the kidnap of the girls has drawn a lot of sympathy
throughout the world. This, he said, was the reason government was
negotiating for the release of the girls.
President Buhari assured Nigerians in the Diaspora that his
administration was doing everything possible to improve the economy
through provision of infrastructure in critical sectors.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi
Adesina, had in July confirmed the willingness of the Federal Government
to negotiate with the sect.
Adesina, who lamented that the insurgents, killed many people, said the
Federal Government would not rule out negotiations with the sect, if it
would lead to the end of terrorism.
The Nigerian Army spokesman Col. Sani Usman, a few days ago, said that members of the terror group were surrendering “en masse.”
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