Standup9ja: 5 B/Haram members swapped for 82 Chibok girls –
Negotiator
The Federal Government swapped five Boko Haram militants for
the 82 Chibok schoolgirls, an authoritative source told Standup9ja yesterday.
The girls were released following a complex negotiation that
took months to execute, the source said.
The outcome should be seen as “a favourable bargain,”
considering what obtained in other climes when it comes to prisoner swap of innocent
citizens with suspected terrorists, he said.
The source, whose name is protected because of the sensitive
nature of the release, allayed fears that the release of the insurgents would
pose a serious international security breach.
He said there was no need to panic over the swap of the
girls with Boko Haram commanders because international convention had been
respected.
The source, said the Boko Haram leaders would not pose any
threat to national security considering the level of discussions going on among
various stakeholders on not only securing the release of abducted persons, but
finding lasting solution to the nearly eight-year insurgency.
“One positive aspect of it is that even in the midst of war,
if you are talking, that is what people like because you will end up having a
peace deal, this is the issue of ‘carrot and stick’ and there is certainty.
“The good aspect of this government is that despite the war,
despite the fact that the military had subdued this thing, mediation is ongoing
and not long after this, you will begin to hear of rehabilitation and
reintegration and other components of peace building,” he said.
The most important aspect of mediation was “creating
goodwill and positive communication.
“Less than a dozen insurgents were released and this is an
unprecedented feat because we got 82 girls and negotiation is ongoing for the
release of more very soon,” he said.
Asked how the Swiss Government, the Red Cross and the
Nigerian government managed to establish talks with the insurgents, he said,
“Is a process that started long ago and culminated in the victory on Saturday.
We built confidence over the years especially when we succeeded in the first
one (21 girls released last year).
“They (Boko Haram) were able to identify their own grudges
because Shekau had been saying over the years that they wanted their members
that are in prison in Nigeria to be swapped with the Chibok girls.
“So, the government agrees, in fact it offered less than a
dozen of the prisons and we were able to convince them (Boko Haram) to release
82 of the Chibok girls. They gave several names of their members to be released
for the exchange but we ended up taking those that we took there,” he said.
On how the negotiators felt on coming face to face with the
deadly Boko Haram commanders for the exchange, he said, “I have the firm belief
that it is only when (someone’s time) is due that one would die; and somebody
must take the risk and they did.
“And secondly, already trust has been built and mediation
does not start and end in one day; this thing started long ago just like what
happened in Rwanda that brought lasting peace, and the peace and reconciliation
committee in South Africa; these are some of the key elements…I have the belief
that I would not die until my appointed time, that is why I went.
“I can assure that the President Muhammadu Buhari led
administration has laid the foundation for lasting solution to the Boko Haram
insurgency by opening the doors of conversation. This is not new, it is an
acceptable norm all over the world,” he added.
PDP’s position on Chibok girls inhuman - FG
The Federal Government has described a statement credited to
a faction of the PDP criticising the process that led to the release of 82
Chibok Girls as “indecent, inhuman and ill-timed.”
The Senator Ahmed Makarfi- led PDP on Sunday condemned the
swap saying it violated international best practices which decried negotiating
with terrorists.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, in a statement issued by his Media Assistant, Segun Adeyemi,
condemned the comments by the PDP.
Alhaji Mohammed said it was insensitive for any individual
or organisation to seek to “douse, on the altar of politics, the universal joy
that has greeted the release of the 82 girls - the highest number so far freed
since their unfortunate abduction under the watch of the PDP over three years
ago.”
He said it was PDP’s “incompetence and cluelessness” that
precipitated the Chibok girls’ crisis in the first instance.
The minister recalled President Buhari’s pledge that his
administration could not be said to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing
the girls, asked, ‘’If that includes
swapping some Boko Haram elements for the girls, so what?
“Will the PDP rather
have the girls stay in perpetual captivity, just to prove a ludicrous point?
Didn’t superpower United States engage in negotiations with the Taliban that
led to the exchange of five Taliban fighters for US Army Sgt Bowe Bergdahl in
2014?
“Didn’t Israel release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in
exchange for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2011?” he asked.
He said many factors came into play when a nation had to
decide whether or not to engage in prisoner/hostage swap, saying, “None of
which should defeat the sanctity attached to human life and pains suffered by
loved ones.”
According to him, ‘’Since the PDP failed - as it did in
everything - to rescue even one of the Chibok girls, the party should hold its
peace while this administration continues to seek the release of all the
abducted girls, using every means at its disposal, in addition to working
assiduously to end all Boko Haram hostilities.’’
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