Boko Haram may want prisoners’ swap with abducted schoolgirls – Shehu Sani

Former mediator between the Federal Government and Boko Haram has stated that the insurgents maybe seeking a swap of the abducted schoolgirls with their detained members.According to Shehu Sani, who brokered a face-to-face peace talks with Boko Haram in 2011, the video in which Boko Haram threatened to sell the abducted girls, as “slaves” was a proof that they planned to use them as bargaining chips rather than kill them.

Sani, who spoke to London Telegraph stated: “If you look at the fact that these girls have already been in captivity for some three weeks, then it is possible to detect a conciliatory tone in this statement from Shekau; he is not saying he is going to kill the girls.

“From my knowledge of the group, to have him saying that he will sell them is proof that this issue can be resolved.

The group is most likely to want to attach some kind of conditions to the girls being released, such as the freeing of some of their own prisoners.”

On the help offered by such countries, such as United States, Britain, France, Britain and other world powers, in the effort to locate the abducted girls, Sani warned that it could be dangerous to try to free them by force.

“A military action towards rescuing them is most likely to turn very tragic,” he said, adding: “My personal belief is that if we can get clerics from northern Nigeria and members of the insurgent group who have already been imprisoned together in dialogue, then some channels for negotiation could be opened. Having military chiefs running everything is not going to help.”

In 2011, Sani brokered peace talks with Boko Haram in Maiduguri, which ensured that former President, Olusegun Obasanjo had a face-to-face dialogue with the group’s leaders.

Boko Haram had insisted that the talks held in the ruins of their former mosque, which was demolished in an operation by the Nigerian military.

The talks failed to win the backing of the Nigerian government, which favoured a “military” solution to the crisis, according to Sani.

In a video released on Monday, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, gloatingly claiming that he would sell the abducted schoolgirls “in the market” to anyone wishing to take them as wives.

While the broadcast appalled the captives’ families and sparked worldwide outrage, Sani saw it as a veiled attempt to seek negotiation.