Abducted Chibok girls
President Muhammadu Buhari has
promised to grant amnesty to Boko Haram fighters on the condition that
they release all the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.
The President, who is on a three-day visit to France, said this during an interview with Agence France Presse on Wednesday.
Buhari told AFP that the Federal
Government was talking to Boko Haram’s prisoners and could offer them
amnesty if the extremist group hands over more than 200 schoolgirls
abducted from their hostel at the Chibok Government Secondary School,
Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014.
He added that he was confident that
conventional attacks by the terrorists would be rooted out by November
but cautioned that deadly suicide attacks, some of them waged by
children, were likely to continue.
He said, “We are trying to see whether
we can negotiate with the Boko Haram prisoners in our custody for the
release of the Chibok girls.
“If the Boko Haram leadership eventually
agrees to turn over the Chibok girls to us, the complete number, then
we may decide to give them (the prisoners) amnesty.”
Buhari, who has promised to stamp out
the group’s bloody six-year insurgency, said the government would not
release any prisoners unless it was convinced it could “get the girls in
reasonably healthy condition.”
But he cautioned that negotiating with Boko Haram militants was fraught with difficulties.
“We are trying to establish if they are
bona fide, how useful they are in Boko Haram, have they reached a
position of leadership where their absence is of relevance to the
operation of Boko Haram?” he said.
Buhari said he was confident that the
military would defeat Boko Haram before the end of the year but
expressed pessimism over the possibility of stopping the terrorists from
attacking ‘soft’ targets.
He added, “The main conventional
attacks, where Boko Haram use armoured cars they took from the Nigerian
troops, or mounted machine-guns on pick-up vehicles and so on, we
believe by the end of the three months, we will see the end of that.
“What may not absolutely stop is the occasional bombings by the use of improvised explosive devices.
“We do not expect a 100 per cent stoppage of the insurgency.”
Meanwhile, the Centre for Crisis
Communication, which is acting as a middleman between the Federal
Government and Boko Haram, says the terrorists have said they are tired
of fighting.
The Executive Secretary for the CCC, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas (retd.), said this in a statement on Wednesday.
Anas, who is a former Director of Public
Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, said terrorists sent the
CCC a message saying they are tired of fighting and willing to end the
war.
He noted that none of the suspected Boko
Haram elements that spoke with the CCC asked for any form of monetary
inducement or compensation as a pre-condition for laying down their
arms.
“In fact, many of them said that they
were simply tired of fighting and being fugitives in a war that they
were deceived into joining,” he said.
Buhari had said on Tuesday that the
Federal Government had begun negotiations with members of the Boko Haram
sect to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
The President said one of the conditions
given by the terrorists was to release one of its members who was
developing Improvised Explosives Devices. He, however, said that his
government rejected the demand.
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