President Goodluck Jonathan has ruled out freeing Boko Haram prisoners in exchange for the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, British Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds said yesterday.
According to AFP, Simmonds who is in Nigeria for talks about the international rescue mission, said he raised the issue with Jonathan during a meeting in Abuja. “I did discuss this with the president and he made it very clear that there will be no negotiation with Boko Haram that involves a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners,” he told reporters in Abuja.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had demanded in a video released on Monday that he may be prepared to release the girls if the Federal Government freed members of the militant group held in the country’s jails.
Interior Minister Abba Moro immediately rejected the plan, telling AFP that the group, which has waged an increasingly deadly insurgency in the northeast since 2009, could not dictate terms.
The Federal Government has stated that it is ready to talk to the militants about ending
the violence and special duties minister Taminu Turaki indicated on Tuesday
that the girls could be one issue discussed.
But while Simmonds indicated that Jonathan has now ruled that out, he was still prepared to fulfil his pledge of talking to the extremists about widerissues to end the violence.
“The point that was also made very clear to me is that the president was keen to continue and facilitate ongoing dialogue to find a structure and architecture of delivering lasting solution to the conflict and the cause of the conflict in northern Nigeria,” he added.
