Terror sect Boko Haram seems to willing to broker a deal with the federal government to release the remaining kidnapped Chibok school girls in return for escaping prosecution, The Nation report.
Over 200 students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, were seized two years ago and have not been traced or found. The Times of London believes only a third of them remain alive.
The paper reported that senior members of the terrorist group said it was prepared to negotiate a surrender and release the hostages on the condition they would not be not betrayed by the government or killed for giving up arms.
“We want to surrender because things are getting worse,” said Amir Muhammad Abdullahi, who is reportedly Boko Haram’s second in command. He said no side was winning the battle and that only a third of the girls remained as “the rest have been martyred”.
Two Chibok girls have been found in the last one week – one of whom called Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki – was found near Sambisa forest.
However, there was confusion mounting over whether the second girl, Serah Luka, who was freed in a raid on a Boko Haram camp on 19 May, was from Chibok.
A strategic member of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign group, Jeff Okoroafor said yesterday that the body would stand by the report from the just rescued Amina Ali that only six of the Chibok girls had died.
Okoroafor said the group’s leaders were not aware of the latest report that only one third of the Chibok girls were alive.
According to him, “We stand by Amina’s report. Until we get some more concrete and verifiable, we will hold on to what she has said that only six of the girls have died and others are still alive.”