FG ready to discuss Chibok girls' release with Boko Haram --Buhari
(Nigeria) President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated the preparedness of the Federal Government to discuss the release of Chibok girls with the Boko Haram insurgents, who abducted them in 2014.
A statement in Abuja on Sunday by Malam Garba Shehu, the
president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, said that Buhari
made the reaffirmation in an interview with journalists in Nairobi, Kenya.
The president spoke to the newsmen at the sidelines of the
sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI).
He said that the Nigerian government had since expressed its
readiness to dialogue with bonafide leaders of the terror group, who knew the
whereabouts of the girls.
‘‘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 Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO. They should
convince the organisation that they are holding the girls, and that they want
Nigeria to release a number of Boko Haram leaders in detention, who 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 said.
The president warned that the Federal Government would not
waste time and resources with ``doubtful sources’’ claiming to know the
whereabouts of the girls.
``We want those girls out and safe. The faster we can
recover them and hand them over to their parents, the better for us.’’
He maintained that the terror group, which pledged
allegiance to ISIS, had been largely decimated by the gallant Nigerian military
with the support of immediate neighbours of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.
``Some of the information about the division in Boko Haram
is already in the press and I have read in the papers about the conflict in
their leadership. The person known in Nigeria as their leader, we understand,
was edged out and the Nigerian members of Boko Haram started turning themselves
to the Nigerian military.
``We learnt that in an air strike by the Nigeria Air Force
he was wounded. Indeed, their top hierarchy and lower cadre have a problem and
we know this because when we came into power, they were holding 14 out of the
774 local governments in Nigeria.
``But now they are not holding any territory and they have
split to small groups attacking soft targets,’’ he said.
On the militancy in the Niger Delta, Buhari expressed the
government’s readiness for dialogue to resolve all contending issues in the
area.
``We do not believe that they (militants) have announced
ceasefire. We are trying to understand them more. Who are their leaders and
which areas do they operate and other relevant issues,’’ he said.
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