Buhari appeals to Boko Haram to commence talks on Chibok girls via international NGO

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has made a fresh appeal to Boko Haram to commence dialogue with his administration asking the terrorists to open discussion channels through an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) if they do not trust his government.

 

Since assuming office last year, President Buhari has been under pressure to resolve the Boko Haram crisis and free the over pupils kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in April 2014. Although the government has enjoyed a lot of military success against Boko Haram over the last year, driving the terrorists out of most of their strongholds, it has still been unable to locate the Chibok girls.

 

As recently as early last year, Boko Haram controlled 14 local governments in Borno State but has by and large been driven out of most of these areas. However, the sect is still refusing to release the girls amid indications that it is holding on to them as a bargaining chip to be used in dialogue with the government to secure an amnesty.

 

Despite government appeals for Boko Haram to commence talks, it is believed that the terrorists are wary of coming out into the open because they fear being led into a trap and being betrayed. In a bid to allay their fears, President Buhari has asked Boko Haram to

commence negotiations through a foreign NGO of its choice.

 

Speaking in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital yesterday on the sidelines of the sixth Toyoko International Conference on African Development, President Buhari said: “I have made a couple of comments on the Chibok girls and it seems to me that much of it has been politicised. What we said is that the government which I preside over is prepared to talk to bonafide leaders of Boko Haram.

 

“If they do not want to talk to us directly, let them pick an internationally recognised NGO, convince them that they are holding the girls and that they want Nigeria to release a number of Boko Haram leaders in detention, which they are supposed to know. If they do it through the modified leadership of Boko Haram and they talk with an internationally recognised NGO, then Nigeria will be prepared to discuss for their release."

 

He warned, however, that the federal government would not waste time and resources with doubtful sources claiming to know the whereabouts of the girls. President Buhari insisted that the terror group had been largely decimated by the gallant Nigerian military with the support of immediate neighbours from Chad, Cameroon, Niger Republic and Benin.