FG Already commenced negotiations with Boko Haram, Buhari tells Nigerians in France

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in France disclosed that the Federal Government has commenced negotiations with members of the Boko Haram sect in a bid to securing the release of the over 200 school girls kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State.
The Chibok school girls were abducted from their school while preparing for the senior school leaving certificate examinations , over a year ago.
The President who stated this yesterday while responding to questions from members of the Nigerian community in France under the auspices of Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO), said the continued stay of the girls in the hands of their captors was worrisome.
“The issue of Chibok girls has occupied our minds and because of the international attention it drew and the sympathy through out the country and the world, the government is negotiating with some of the Boko Haram leadership” he said.
The President Buhari noted that government has to first establish the genuine members of the sect to avoid the mistake of engaging the wrong persons adding that government also has to their terms as ” the first impression we had was not very encouraging”.
Conditions given by the group, he said, was to release one of its members who has been strategic in the building of Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDs), a demand that government will not cede to.
“They wanted us to release one of their leaders who is a strategic person in developing and making Improvised IEDs that is causing a lot of havoc in the country by blowing people in Churches, Mosque, market places, motor parks and other places. But is very important that if we are going to talk to any body, we have to know how much he is worth.
According to him, the sect had to release all the girls, then government can negotiate, and subsequently integrate them back into the society. “We have to be very careful” he said adding that  “This has drawn a lot of sympathy though out the world, that is why this government is getting very hard in negotiating to get the balance of those who are alive.”
Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity Femi Adesina had in July this year confirmed the willingness of government to engage the sect if they were ready.
The Nigerian Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman had also reportedly said members of terror group Boko Haram were now surrendering “en masse” and that the regional offensive is scoring success against the militants.