DSS reveals that Boko Haram only agreed to release Dapchi girls in exchange for cessation of hostilities

DEPARTMENT of State Services (DSS) operatives have revealed that Boko Haram insisted on a ceasefire and a cessation of hostilities as a condition for them returning the abducted Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) schoolgirls.

 

Last week, Boko Haram released 105 of the 110 pupils who were abducted from their boarding school last month claiming that five of them died during their ordeal. On February 19, the school was attacked by the terrorists, who abducted the pupils in what was reminiscent of the kidnapping of the Chibok girls in 2014.

 

After intense negotiations, however, the pupils were released and returned to Dapchi without a shot being fired and without any confrontation between the terrorists and the security forces. Presenting the girls to President Muhammadu Buhari, DSS director-general, Lawal Daura, said the process of negotiating the process of the girls’ release was complicated and painstaking.

 

He added: “Before you today, Mr President, are two additional young primary school pupils, namely Hafsat Haruna, an 11-year-old primary six pupil and Mala Maina Bukar, 13 years old and also a primary six pupil. The remaining six Dapchi girls are yet to be accounted for and dialogue on these students is still ongoing.

 

“It may be recalled that the president had given a clear directive to security agencies to use peaceful options to ensure the timely and safe release of the girls, so what followed were intense behind-the-scene dialogue spearheaded by the Department of State Services. The insurgents’ only condition was their demands for cessation of hostilities and temporary ceasefire to enable them return the girls at the point they picked them and they required assurances that the government security forces would keep to this."

 

According to Mr Daura, the exercise was arduous and quite challenging. He added that the sensitivity of the operation and some uncertainties surrounding it, particularly the routes to be used, nature of transportation, realisation and concern that the girls were not kept at one place, issues of encountering military checkpoints and running the operation on need-to-know basis, made the whole exercise more complicated.

 

“Beyond the release of the abducted girls, our primary interest for engaging in the dialogue was informed by a permanent possible cessation of hostilities, discussing the fate of the arrested insurgents and innocent Nigerian citizens being held hostage and the possibility of granting an amnesty to repentant insurgents. These presently seem problematic because the insurgents are factionalised while holding various spheres of influence in their guerrilla controlled enclaves," Mr Daura added.

 

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