President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated the preparedness of the Federal
Government to discuss the release of the Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko
Haram terror group since 2014,
In an interview with journalists in Nairobi, Kenya at the weekend,
President Buhari said the Nigerian government is ready to dialogue with
bonafide leaders of the terror group who know 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), 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 said.
President Buhari, who spoke to the media on the margins of the sixth Tokyo
International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI), warned that
the Federal Government will 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.’’
The President maintained that the terror group, which pledged allegiance
to ISIS, has been largely decimated by the gallant Nigerian military with
the support of immediate neighbours from 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.
On the militancy in the Niger Delta region, the President said the Federal
Government is also open to dialogue to resolve all contending issues in
the area.
‘‘We do not believe that they (the 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.