President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that his Nigeria is currently in talks with Boko Haram prisoners in custody and could offer them amnesty if the extremist group hands over the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in their schools last year.
Buhari made the revelation on Wednesday, adding that he is confident that the traditional attacks by the terrorist group would be rooted out by November.
Speaking further, Buhari cautioned that deadly suicide attacks by the group may persist.
“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 amnesty.”
Towards the end of the administration of former president on Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, it had been widely reported that talks were ongoing between representatives of the terrorist group and Nigerian representatives. However the talks had been botched when Leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau released a video to deny been in talks with anybody.
Buhari had also said during his visit to the U.S that he could negotiate with the group if he was dead certain that they are being genuinely represented.
So far, the terrorists have killed more than 15,000 people and forced 1.5 million others out of their homes. On April 14 2014, they had invaded more Government Secondary School, Chibok and kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls. Only about 57 of them had been able to escape while an estimated 219 are still in captivity. Shekau had threatened to sell the girls into slavery in Sudan thereafter.
In August, the president gave a brand new set of military chiefs a three-month deadline to end the insurgency. On Wednesday, he expressed confidence that the deadline would be respected — but only on Boko Haram’s “conventional” assaults and not necessarily on the random suicide attacks that have killed hundreds since he took office.
“The main conventional attacks, where Boko Haram use armoured cars they took from Nigerian troops, or mounted machine-guns on pick-ups and so on, we believe by the end of the three months, we will see the back of that,” he said.
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“What may not absolutely stop are the occasional bombings by the use of improvised explosive devices,” he cautioned. “We do not expect a 100 percent stoppage of the insurgency.”
