An
exclusive investigative report has revealed the untold story of the
deal that gave birth to the peaceful release of 21 Chibok school girls
by Boko Haram group on Thursday.
The release of 21 Chibok girls by the terrorist Boko Haram group
Thursday was the culmination of more than two years of negotiation and
perseverance by a team which first assembled about two years ago.
The key actors who first initiated the process made their initial
attempt to rescue the girls around July 2014, during the Goodluck
Jonathan administration, but that effort floundered in the last minutes.
The initial team comprised Shehu Sani, now a senator; rights
activist, Fred Eno; a lawyer, Mustapha Zanna; the Nigerian Army, then
led by Kenneth Minimah; the Swiss government; and the International
Committee of the Red Cross, which was called in to play a neutral
intermediary role.
Mr. Sani, the sources said, began the process when he reached out
to the Swiss Government through its Embassy in Nigeria and then linked
them to Mr. Zanah who in turn connected the Swiss authorities and the
International Committee of the Red Cross with the leadership of Boko
Haram.
Mr. Jonathan appointed elder statesman, Edwin Clark, to liaise with
the team and government. After a few weeks of work, the team nearly
secured the release of the girls in 2014.
Highly placed sources familiar with the negotiation revealed at the
time that the deal fell through due to the clumsy manner in which the
Jonathan administration handled it.
“It boils down, basically, to three key issues: inflexibility
and lack of realism on the part of the insurgent forces; lack of support
for a negotiated settlement to the insurgency on the part of security
forces; and what appears to be government’s acceptance that the security
forces were right,” the sources said.
“The president desperately wanted the girls released, but politics of positioning stood in the way of progress,” Mr. Eno told Premium Times at the time.
After the initial effort failed, according to our sources, Messrs
Sani, Eno and Clark moved on to other things. But other members of the
team remained tenacious and kept exploring available options for the
release of the girls, this newspaper learnt.
The State Security Service (SSS) led the fresh negotiation with the
team using the existing line of dialogue established in 2014.
The Nigerian military was left out of the initial negotiation after
the Boko Haram leadership reportedly insisted it would have nothing
with an organisation that had been killing its members, and had killed
some of the Chibok girls in aerial bombardments.
It was learnt that the SSS was therefore enlisted to lead the
negotiation, gather intelligence regarding the reliability of the
release window and provide other support services essential to the
operation.
After a deal had been struck, the Red Cross was called in to meet the leadership of the sect as well as sight the girls.
A date and location was then agreed for the release of the girls.
On Wednesday, October 14, the military was contacted to deploy some of
its men to a particular location in Banki, a border town in Bama local
government area of Borno State, to pick up the 21 girls, officials said.
The girls were released at 5:30 am on Thursday and immediately flown to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, in a chopper.
The Nigerian government announced the release of the girls on
Thursday morning, hours after they were successfully received from
insurgents in the highly confidential operation.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, dismissed
reports that the girls were rescued in exchange for top-level suspected
Boko Haram detainees across the country.
The release was a “product of painstaking negotiations and trust on both sides,” Mr. Mohammed said at a world press conference Thursday afternoon. “Please note that this is not a swap. It is a release.”
Mr. Mohammed’s comments that the girls were not released based on a
prisoner swap deal immediately sparked speculation that the government
may have paid ransom.
However, presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, denied that any ransom was paid.
Mr. Buhari had repeatedly stated his willingness to rescue the
girls even if it required swapping them with suspected terrorists in
custody.
A government source said negotiations for the release of the remaining girls was continuing.
Credits: Premium Times
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
No comments:
Post a Comment