FG Sets To Swap Abducted Chibok Girls With Boko Haram Prisoners

Following the new video released last Sunday by Boko Haram, showing one of the kidnapped Chibok girls, Maida Dorcas Yakubu, (read here) in a staged interview demanding the release of the members in exchange for the girls, there are indications that the Federal Government has begun moves to do the exchange.

According to Saturday PUNCH, as part of the moves, security agencies had started conducting a fresh profiling of  the Boko Haram detainees in line with a directive of the Federal Government.

Reports also claimed that the profiling would include the time they were arrested and the de-radicalisation programme they had undergone.

It was gathered that although the government had not decided on the militants that would be released in exchange for the Chibok girls, insurgents, who had not been tried could be the first beneficiaries of the swap deal.

Also, detainees who had undergone the “de-radicalisation” programme of the government, would be considered under the deal.

Furthermore, investigations revealed that the government had started addressing problems that could hinder the swap talks with the group following its split early on August 3, 2016, with ISIS naming, Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the leader of the group.

However, after a few days, the former leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, in a video, dismissed the appointment of the new leader and insisted that he remained the authentic leader of the group.

Shekau, in a video released on Sunday, said the sect was ready to exchange more than 200 girls abducted on April 14, 2014 at Chibok Secondary School for its fighters that were being detained by the Federal Government.

According to a top government officer, the government had started addressing the problem.

”I can assure you that the government is identifying genuine members of the sect it is negotiating with. We won’t repeat the mistake the immediate past government made by talking with those who will not produce the girls.

”Government is not opposed to swopping. Other countries, including Israel, have done it. In fact, security agencies are conducting fresh profiling of the sect members that are being detained.

”That is the first move. If there are sect members that have not been tried, they will be the first set to be considered under the arrangement.”

Photo credit: BBC