Lai: We’re negotiating the release of Chibok girls

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says there are ongoing talks with the Boko Haram sect on the release of the Chibok schoolgirls.

Commenting on the newly-released video which the sect used to prove that the girls were still alive, Mohammed told CNN that the details of the conversation will not be disclosed in order not to endanger the negotiations.

He said the new video showed that there had been “little transformation in their (Chibok girls) physical appearance”.

“There are ongoing talks. We cannot ignore leads but of course many of these investigations cannot be disclosed openly because it could also endanger the negotiations,” CNN quoted him as saying.

Mohammed’s statement affirmed an earlier comment which President Muhammadu Buhari made on negotiations to free the girls.

“Let them bring all the girls and then, we will be prepared to negotiate, I will allow them to come back to Nigeria or to be absolved in the community,” he had said during a visit to France in September.

“We have to be very careful, the concern we have for the Chibok girls, one only imagine if they got a daughter there between 14 and 18 and for more than one and a half years, a lot of the parents who have died would rather see the graves of their daughters rather than the condition they imagine they are in.

“This has drawn a lot of sympathy though out the world, that is why this government is getting very hard in negotiating and getting the balance of those who are alive. 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 it is very important that if we are going to talk to anybody, we have to know how much he is worth.”

Attempts to negotiate with the sect in the past led to an embarrassment on the part of the previous government, as the group kept on carrying attacks despite so-called agreements on ceasefire.

Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram leader, subsequently released a video to debunk the report of the peace deal, and threatened to stage more attacks.