Indications are rife that the federal government has begun moves to exchange the Chibok girls with some Boko Haram detainees– This is part of the moves to negotiate with the terrorists and secure the release of the girls– Security agencies has started conducting a fresh profiling of the Boko Haram detaineesIf a report by The Punch is anything to go by, reprieve maybe on the way for the captured Chibok girls as the federal government is said to have begun negotiations with Islamist group, Boko Haram to secure their release.
As part of the moves, security agencies has started conducting a fresh profilingof the Boko Haram detainees in their custody.
Chibok girls appeared in a new video with their captors recently The report stated that the profiling would include the time they were arrested and the de-radicalisation programme they had undergone.
The military, the police, the Nigeria Prison Service, the office of the National Security Adviser and the ministry of justice would all be involvedin the negotiations with the terrorists.
The report state that insurgents who had not been tried could be the first beneficiaries of the swap deal. Detainees who had undergone the de-radicalisation programme of the government, would also be considered.
The federal government it was learnt had started addressing problems that could hinder negotiations with the sect following its split early this month.
Boko Haram had, on August 3, split into two factions withISIS naming Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the leader of the group.
But Abubakar Shekau, the known leaderof the group in a video, dismissed the appointment of al-Barnawi andinsistedthat he remained the authentic leader of the group, signalling a split in the group.
In another video released recently, Shekau said the group was ready to exchange more than 200 girls abducted on April 14, 2014 at Chibok Secondary School for its fighters that were being detained.
Meanwhile, reports has surfaced in the media recently that the federal government was in a dilemma over the faction of the sect it should negotiate with.But the minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed told journalists recently that the government was in touch with members of the sect. Mohammed was however silent on which faction of the sect the government was in touch with.
“The government is in touch with thosebehind the video. We are on top of the situation, ”he had stated.
In a related development, U.S Secretaryof State John Kerry will visit Nigeria next weekto hold talks with President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior government officials.
The talks will focus on regional issues, the insurgency in the North east, human rights issues in Nigeria and Nigeria’s dwindling economy, the State Department spokesman, John Kirby said in a statement yesterday, August 18.
