The Report by Thisday is reproduced
below:
Contrary to President Goodluck
Jonathan’s public stance that the
government would not negotiate with
terrorists for the release of the 200 plus
schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram, the
federal government has sought the
assistance of three independent
negotiators to assist with their release in
a prisoner-for-girls swap deal.
The government had repeatedly rejected
the option of negotiating with the
insurgents who had demanded the
release of their members detained in
federal government facilities in exchange
for the abducted schoolgirls.
But THISDAY was reliably informed that
the presidency has engaged the services
of Messrs Aliyu Teshaku, Ahmad Salkida
and an Australian, Steve Davies, to
negotiate the release of the girls.
Presidency sources, who spoke
exclusively to THISDAY, said Teshaku, of
the Tiv ethnic stock in Benue State, was
once a Christian but converted to Islam
many years ago.
According to the sources, he is believed to
have once been an adherent of Boko
Haram and was also believed to be its
spokesman after Abu Qaqa was captured
by security forces, but now only
“maintains a close link” with the sect and
acts as go-between for the government
and the sect.
He is said to have been introduced to the
presidency and the Borno State
Government by the Inspector General of
Police (IG), Mohammed Abubakar, two
years ago as one person who had great
influence on the Boko Haram leaders and
could open up peace talks with the sect.
But despite the high profile
recommendation and introduction of
Teshaku, the Borno State Director of the
State Security Service (SSS) at the time
was said to have expressed reservations
over the genuineness of Teshaku’s claims
and ability to negotiate a peace deal with
the sect.
He was also recently named by the
Nigeria Police Force as the Coordinator of
the Peace and Reconciliation Committee
in the aftermath of the Tiv/Agatu clashes
with Fulani herdsmen in Benue State.
Another person, a security source said,
that had been approached by the
presidency is Salkida, a Nigerian
journalist who had worked for Daily Trust
and Blue Print, both Abuja-based
newspapers.
But Salkida was said to have been sacked
from both media organisations, ostensibly
for his perceived closeness to the Boko
Haram sect, which caused him to
compromise his professional handling of
news reports in relation to the sect.
Owing to his position, security operatives
soon went after him, forcing him to flee to
the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he
has operated from for some time.
He had also made claims of being close
to the leadership of Boko Haram.
According to security sources, Salkida
was taken recently to see the president at
the Presidential Villa, where the modalities
on negotiations were discussed.
The Borno-born Salkida was also
reported by The Mail of London last
Sunday of having been nominated by
both the federal government and the
insurgents to carry out negotiations for
the prisoners-for-schoolgirls swap.
The Mail reported that but for the sudden
reversal of the position of the federal
government on the prisoner swap deal,
the girls would have been released in the
week Jonathan attended the security
summit in France, as Sakida had begun
negotiations with the terrorists on how to
secure their freedom.
Described as the group’s (Boko Haram)
most-trusted and unbiased go-between
with the federal government, Salkida, who
is said to be “probably the only civilian
with access to Shekau”, has been fingered
as one of the independent negotiators for
the release of the girls.
The third negotiator approached by the
federal government is the Australian-born
Davies, who is said to be an experienced
hostage negotiator.
Presidency sources said Davies is
working in conjunction with Mrs. Aisha
Wakil, who had presented herself as a
mother figure of Boko Haram adherents
and had repeatedly pleaded with them to
stop their attacks.
Wakil, who is of Igbo parentage, married
a northerner and converted to Islam
several years ago.
However, her self-acclaimed closeness to
the Boko Haram apparatchik has hardly
paid off, as she failed last year to connect
the Tanimu Turaki-led peace committee
(of which she was a member) to the Boko
Haram leadership when the committee
went round the country seeking how to
dialogue with the insurgents in a bid to
end the violence.
That botched attempt made many to
doubt her claims of closeness or
“maternal influence” to the terrorists.
However, despite the frantic efforts being
made by the government to negotiate the
release of the girls behind the scenes,
security sources have expressed concern
over the effectiveness of the said
negotiators to reach a deal with Boko
Haram, as they are alleged to be pursing
their own personal agendas and are more
interested in the monetary gains from the
swap.
One security source told THISDAY: “The
demands for cash has spurred suspicions
that the negotiators are merely interested
in the monetary gains they can make
during negotiations, thus reinforcing the
suspicion that they may not actually be
as close to Shekau as they claim.”
Also, eyebrows have been raised over the
fact that the presidency has failed to
involve the Borno State Government in the
back door moves to negotiate the release
of the girls.
Another security official who spoke to
THISDAY said the Borno State
Government had been kept out of the loop
possibly because the federal government
believes that the issue of security is its
exclusive prerogative as provided in the
constitution.
He however wondered how the federal
government hopes to strike a deal with
Boko Haram without the local knowledge
and insight that could be provided by the
Borno State Government.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Defence Staff
(CDS), Alex Badeh, has disclosed that the
military has located the whereabouts of
the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram
over a month ago.
However, Badeh also raised the alarm
that both external and internal forces
were fuelling the insurgency, with the
ultimate aim of destabilising the country.
The CDS said this yesterday in Abuja,
while addressing a group of protesters –
Citizens Initiative for Security Awareness
(CISA) – who came to support the efforts
of the Nigerian armed forces in its fight
against the Boko Haram sect.
He assured the group that the military
was determined to salvage the
deteriorating security situation and would
“bring sanity back into the country”.
“The military already knows the place
where the over 200 schoolgirls that were
abducted by the sect are being held. But
we won’t be disclosing this. The military,
however, cannot invade the place in order
to prevent collateral damage but the girls
would be brought back,” he said.
He added: “People have come to the
realisation that we don’t have another
military other than this one, and it is
either you support your military or you
look for anarchy. This war is not fought
by the military alone, this war is fought by
Nigerians. Nigeria is at war and
everybody must have all hands on deck.”
While commenting on the recovery of
arms and ammunition by the military in
various parts of the country, he said: “We
are recovering them and you know some
of the arms we are recovering, they are
very alien to the Nigerian armed forces
which means there are people from
outside fuelling this thing. When Mr.
President said we have Al-Qaeda in West
Africa, I believed him 100 per cent.
“Because I know people from outside
Nigeria are involved in this war, they are
fighting us, they want to destabilise us.
This is our country and some people in
this country are standing with the forces
of darkness. But we must salvage our
country. We must bring sanity back to our
nation.”
Badeh, however, explained that the fight
against insurgency was different from a
full-scale war, saying: “If we are fighting
an external war, they would have been
begging us to withdraw, we proved it
when we were in Liberia and Sierra Leone
and we returned democracy back there.”
Speaking further on the girls, he said the
“good news for the parents of the girls is
that we know where they are, but we
cannot tell you. We cannot tell you military
secrets here, so just leave us alone to do
our work. But we are working to get the
girls back.
“We want our girls back, our military can
do it, but where they are held, we cannot
go there with force. So nobody should say
the Nigerian military does not know what
it is doing, as we cannot kill our girls in
the name of getting them back. So we are
working, the president has empowered us
to do the work and for anybody
castigating the Nigerian military there is
something wrong with him.”
The CDS stressed further that the military
in Nigeria is the backbone of democracy,
adding that it holds the constitution very
dear.
Earlier, the Coordinator of the group, Mr.
Chidi Omeje, said the group represents
the ordinary Nigerians on the street.
“We are not politicians or religious bigots
who understand that no nation can stand
on his own without a strong military and
we appreciate our military,” Omeje said.
He stated that the group was spurred into
action due to the media attacks
championed by mischievous politicians
and some interest groups that have
ulterior motives.
“We are trying to tell the leadership of the
Nigerian military that ordinary Nigerians
are behind them, ordinary Nigerians
appreciate them,” he said.
From ThisDay, May 2014: http://
www.thisdaylive.com/articles/names-of-
fg-negotiators-to-free-chibok-girls-
revealed/179499/

...