Olusegun
Obasanjo
has met with people close to
Boko Haram
in
an attempt to broker the release of more than 200
kidnapped schoolgirls
The meeting took place last weekend at Obasanjo’s farm
in southern
Ogun state
and included relatives of some
senior
Boko Haram
fighters as well as intermediaries and
the former president, our source said.
“The meeting was focused on how to free the girls
through negotiation,”
said the source who requested
anonymity, referring to the girls seized on April 14 from
the remote northeastern town of
Chibok, Borno state.
Reports of the talks emerged as Nigeria’s Chief of
Defence Staff, Air Chief
Marshal Alex Badeh
, said the
girls had been located while casting doubt on the
prospect of rescuing them by force.
Obasanjo
, who left office in 2007, has previously sought
to negotiate with the insurgents, including in September
2011 after
Boko Haram
bombed the United Nations
headquarters in Abuja.
Then, he flew to the Islamists’ base in the
Borno state
capital, Maiduguri, to meet relatives of former
Boko
Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf
, who was killed in police
custody in 2009.
The 2011 talks did not help stem the violence and some
at the time doubted if Obasanjo was dealing with people
who were legitimately capable of negotiating a ceasefire.
Spokesmen for the former head of state, who remains an
influential figure in Nigerian politics, could not be
reached to comment on the latest reported Boko Haram
talks.
But the source told AFP that Obasanjo had voiced
concern about Nigeria’s acceptance of foreign military
personnel to help rescue the girls.
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