Nigeria aims to have around 200 girls kidnapped by Islamist Boko Haram militants freed by Tuesday, a senior government source says.



However, the source declined to comment on where the transfer would take place.

"I can confirm that FG (the federal government) is working hard to meet its own part of the agreement so that the release of the abductees can by effected either on Monday or latest Tuesday next week," he said.

It comes as Nigeria's government reached a deal with the militant group for a ceasefire, according to the country's defence chief.



Some Nigerians are likely to greet claims of a ceasefire with scepticism after years of violence.

Since the girls' abduction, Nigeria's military has twice claimed to have rescued some or all of the girls, only to back-track hours later.

Suspected Boko Haram militants killed several people in two attacks on villages after the announcement of a ceasefire, security sources and witnesses said on Saturday.

In the first attack, suspected insurgents attacked the village of Abadam on Friday night, killing at least one person and ransacking homes.

Another attack on the village of Dzur on Saturday morning left at least eight people dead.

The announcement of the ceasefire comes a day before supporters of president Goodluck Jonathan are due to rally in Abuja. It is expected Mr Jonathan or his vice president, Namadi Sambo, will announce his candidacy for February 2015 elections at the event.

Officials at the presidency and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Boko Haram has also not yet commented on the reported truce.

We have confidence in those we are negotiating with but we are still doing it with considerable caution. Boko Haram has grown into such an amorphous entity that any splinter group could come up disowning the deal.

Senior Nigerian government official.
The group's sole means of conveying messages are videotaped speeches by a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, its leader whom the military last year said it had killed.

A second government source involved in the talks was more cautious, stressing there might have to be more discussions in Nigeria and the Chadian capital N'djamena - the nearest non-Nigerian major city to the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency - before all the details are ironed out.

"We have confidence in those we are negotiating with but we are still doing it with considerable caution. Boko Haram has grown into such an amorphous entity that any splinter group could come up disowning the deal," he said.

"(But) we believe we are talking to the right people."

Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as "Western education is sinful", has killed thousands of people in a five-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in the vast scrubland of Nigeria's impoverished north-east.

"I wish to inform this audience that a ceasefire agreement has been concluded," Marshal Alex Badeh said in a statement after three days of talks with the militant group.

A Nigerian presidency source said the agreement stretched to the girls, who were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok near the Cameroon border in April, sparking a worldwide outcry.

The girls have remained in captivity ever since, although police and a parent of some of the missing students said last month one of the girls had been released.

President Goodluck Jonathan has been pilloried at home and abroad for his slow response to the kidnapping and for his inability to quell the violence by the Islamist militants, seen as the biggest security threat to Africa's biggest economy.

The US State Department said it "could not independently confirm" a deal had been struck between Nigeria and Boko Haram.

The United States is among several Western allies helping Nigeria's military with training and intelligence support to tackle Boko Haram.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said, however, the United States would welcome an end to hostilities and the return of the schoolgirls.

ABC News



Source http://transparencyng.com/index.php/news-categories/89-national-security/10446-boko-haram-to-release-chibok-girls-by-tuesday-fg

"We have confidence in those we are negotiating with but we are still doing it with considerable caution. Boko Haram has grown into such an amorphous entity that any splinter group could come up disowning the deal," he said.

"(But) we believe we are talking to the
right people."

Hope they are really the right people. These guys never really had a face. It's risky to trust them.
Let's just hope that all this peace talk is not a 'war' tactic to make the military and the FG feel at ease while they(BH) scheme something else behind their backs.

The release of chibok girls is an event of cli'max that the FG has lined up in this whole tragic-comedy play all in a bid to lead gullible Nigerians to vote PDP/GEJ back in 2015.


Plus,the play writers and political strategist who wrote this script understand the psychology of the Average Nigerian very very well.
And kudos to GEJ for being a good actor - and politician, the dude is not that clueless after all.



GEJ till 666...
Niaja is fvcked!

Fg and their unauthorised spokespersons should shut up for once and let their actions speak. What is the use of raising people's hopes and on tuesday nothing happens.

I don't trust the so call ceasefire agreement, book harram may explore that to seize more territories from Nigeria

Kosovo

I dont think the Nigerian Military is so gullible to be complacent during the period of "cease fire". I'm not just comfortable with the government PR all the time without results

Joavid:
The release of chibok girls is an event of cli'max that the FG has lined up in this whole tragic-comedy play all in a bid to lead gullible Nigerians to vote PDP/GEJ back in 2015.


Plus,the play writers and political strategist who wrote this script understand the psychology of the Average Nigerian very very well.
And kudos to GEJ for being a good actor - and politician, the dude is not that clueless after all.



GEJ till 666...
Niaja is fvcked!

My dear, will you stop politicising everything please? We should be praying that this deal is successful and that our girls returned to us unharmed rather than deceiving yourself that this is a script. For your information, even Jonathan isn't sure that this deal will be successful. We don't even know if we are dealing with the true representatives of Boko Haram. What we need is prayers and not cynicism.