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Cape Town — An official in Nigeria’s Chibok village where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents, has reportedly called on the government to listen to the group’s demand for imprisoned militants to be freed in exchange for the girls’ release.
According to the Voice of America, Zanna Madu, who is the district head of Chibok town, said President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration should negotiate with the Islamist militants to win the girls’ release.
On Sunday, Jonathan ruled out any negotiation to free the girls, saying the captives should be released “unconditionally”.
Madu’s remarks came as Nigeria’s defence Air Marshal Alex Badeh said on Monday that the military knew the girls’ location, but would not use force to rescue them as any raid to free them would be fraught with danger.
According to an AP report Badeh said Nigerian troops could save the girls but “we can’t go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back”.
More than 200 teenagers were abducted from their school in Chibok on April 14. Police say 53 escaped on their own and 276 remain captive.
A Boko Haram video has shown some of the girls reciting Quranic verses in Arabic and two of them explaining why they had converted from Christianity to Islam in captivity.
Unverified reports have indicated two may have died of snake bites, some have been forced to marry their abductors and that some may have been carried across borders into Chad and Cameroon.
Cameroon also said it had begun deploying 3,000 extra troops to buttress its border with Nigeria against the threat posed by marauding militants.
The United States however expressed scepticism that the girls had even been located by Nigeria, stating that it had no “independent information” on the matter.
US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told journalists in Washington that “for the girls’ safety and wellbeing, we certainly would not discuss publicly” having found them, even if the reports were true.
Washington has deployed surveillance drones, spy planes and about 30 civilian and military specialists to support Nigeria’s security forces in the search.
The talks last weekend at Obasanjo’s farm in southern Ogun state included relatives of senior Islamist fighters, intermediaries and the former president, the source said on condition of anonymity.
“The meeting was focused on how to free the girls through negotiation,” said the source, referring to the kidnapped schoolgirls, whose abduction has triggered global outrage.
Nigeria’s response to the mass abduction has been widely criticised and the hostage crisis has brought unprecedented international attention to Boko Haram’s five-year extremist uprising.
Activists and pressure groups on their regular march in Abuja welcomed reports by the military the previous day that the girls had been located.
“When the defence chief said that we have identified the location and the camp of these terrorists, hope was restored,” said the head of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Abdullahi Abdulmajeed.
Obasanjo, who left office in 2007, has previously sought to negotiate with the insurgents, including in September 2011 after Boko Haram bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.
The 2011 talks did not help stem the violence and some at the time doubted if Obasanjo was dealing with people with the authority to negotiate a ceasefire. — AFP
derick.khumalo