Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani has said the federal government needed to release some Boko Haram insurgents in exchange for the abducted Chibok girls and other persons kept in captivity for negotiations to work.
Speaking on Thursday, September 17, in Kaduna, Sani said the government and as well as the insurgents must come to the table with an open mind and be ready to reach an agreement, Daily Independent reports.
According to him, negotiating with the terrorists was a welcome development, necessary for successfully ending insurgency in the country.
Sani said: “We need credible personalities who have some level of recognition or respect with the insurgents and a second team to oversee the terms of agreement to their full implementation. These are very much necessary to achieve success and put an end to insurgency.
“But we must make it very clear that we will not in anyway surrender our sovereignty to any terror group. We will not concede any territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to any insurgent group, and we will not in any way jettison our secular principles as a democratic state.
“If these caveats are clear then we are all out for negotiations.”
He explained that previous administration failed negotiating because they were not ready to reach an agreement with the insurgents.
“We even reached a point of exchange when at the last point the government changed its mind based on security report received from security agencies,” he said.
Speaking in Paris with members of the Nigerian community, President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly said there was ongoing negotiations aimed at ensuring the release of the school girls captured by Boko Haram terrorists in Chibok, Borno state over a year ago.
Corroborating him, the Centre of Crisis Communication (CCC) had said some Boko Haram leaders were tired of fighting and that’s why they decided to negotiate with the government. The executive secretary of the centre, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas (rtd) commended Buhari for his willingness to negotiate with the terrorists sect.
