The release of the kidnapped secondary schools girls abducted from Chibok might take longer than expected as the girls are presently scattered across West Africa.
A presidency source who is familiar with the ongoing negotiations between government officials – including the private secretary to President Jonathan, Hassan Tukur, and delegates of (a faction of) Boko Haram, told YNaija, “the release of the girls is dependent on how quickly the group is able to reassemble the girls from wherever they are scattered”.
During the discussions which begun weeks ago in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, the Boko Haram interlocutors revealed that they had to disperse the girls because keeping them in one place for long would have attracted the attention of “hostile forces” – Nigerian and Cameroonian forces, as well as forces from western countries such as the US, the UK and France that had mounted months of surveillance work to locate the girls and effect their freedom.
While negotiating, the Islamist group promised to not only release the girls but also bring an end to the over four years of hostilities against Nigeria with the condition that their members (Boko Haram) would be given amnesty.
However, a lecturer at a College of Education in Borno, Ibrahim Solomon has described the ceasefire agreement as “ill-timed”.
“The Boko Haram has realized that it can no longer face the federal might so it is trying to look for a breathing space,” he said, “The sect has realized that the time is up, so it is trying to play some tricks so it can regroup and start unleashing terror again. After killing our people and destroying our lives, they are now claiming ceasefire. What happens to those who lost their lives, or those who lost their bread winners and so on.
“I do not think that we will allow individuals who killed our relatives to come back and start planning for another killing again. I think government must be careful in the whole issue.”
Culled from Y Naija
