I saw the abducted girls...

Wale Odunsi writes for Dailypost.
President Goodluck Jonathan nearly struck a deal with members of the Boko Haram sect for the release of over 200 abducted schoolgirls taken away on April 14, but for a change of mind at the eleventh hour.



UK Mail reported at the weekend that the Nigerian leader backed out of the deal after his peers at the recent summit in Paris, capital city of France, sternly warned him of the dangers of such move.

According to them, captive-students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state can be rescued through force by combined local and foreign security forces,

But the cancellation is said to have enraged Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau and now puts the girls’ lives in greater danger.

An intelligence source told The Mail on Sunday says “the next video we may see from the terrorists could show the girls being killed one by one.”

Shekau, DailyPost gathered, had agreed to bring the girls out of their forest camps in the remote north-east of the country in the early morning and take them to a safe location for the prisoner swap.

“They would have been dropped off in a village, one group at a time, and left there while their kidnappers disappear. There was to be a signal to a mediator at another location to bring in the prisoners,” the source said.

Although, about 2,000 Boko Haram members are currently detained, one hundred non-combatant, low-level sympathisers were to be freed.

The two groups were to be brought together in a convoy of buses accompanied by a handpicked facilitator trusted by the government and the sect.

The Mediator

His name is Ahmad Salkida. Born in the north-eastern state of Borno, he has known its leaders all his life and has unprecedented access.

Salkida started journalism in 2001, reporting for several media organizations in Nigeria. However, his exclusive reports on the insurgency in the Boko Haram militant group made him an enemy of the state.

He has been arrested on several occasions accused of being a Boko Haram fanatic. Concerned about his safety, he fled with his family to Dubai two years ago.

But a fortnight ago, he was invited by aides of President Jonathan, to help save the government further embarrassment occasioned by the abduction. The incident led to the persistent #BringBackOurGirls worldwide campaign

Salkida initially feared arrest on arrival in the country, but was given a ‘Letter of Indemnity’ personally signed by the Mr. Jonathan.

Sources told The Mail that the journalist was able to travel by taxi to the group’s forest camp to talk to Shekau two weeks ago.

“His mission was secretive and dangerous. He is probably the only civilian with access to Shekau. There is trust between them and Salkida had only one aim – to get the schoolgirls out,” they said.

“He reported afterwards that the group of girls he saw were alive and well, and being adequately fed and sheltered. They told him all they wanted was to go home.”

As it stands, Salkida’s spirited but brave effort, albeit complicated by officials pronouncements about negotiations with the sect, may have been jeopardized by the government’s abrupt back out.

Reacting to the report, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati on Sunday said: “I am not aware of an attempted rescue plan taking place last week.”