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.
-Punch
Pls after negotiating, make sure you retrieve all the fire arms from them. Dont just negotiate
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