Buhari, who spoke to Al Jazeera English’s Mehdi Hasan in a
wide-ranging and exclusive interview with the tv’s flagship current
affairs show, ‘UpFront’, reiterated his pledge to defeat Boko Haram by
December, but also acknowledged he would be willing to negotiate with
the group to secure the release of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.
The President in the interview, said: “They (Boko Haram) have to prove to us that they
(Chibok grils) are alive, they are well, and then we can…negotiate with
them,”
President Buhari told ‘UpFront’ host Mehdi Hasan. “We said it and we meant it. If we are satisfied that the girls are alive.”
When asked whether he would offer financial payments, or a prisoner
release, to Boko Haram in return for the girls, Buhari did not rule out
either option. “Well it depends on the negotiations with the leadership
of Boko Haram.”
The President has pledged to defeat Boko Haram by the end of 2015 and
told Hasan: “As soon as the rainy season comes, which is by the end of
the year […] Boko Haram will virtually be out of their main stronghold
and that will be the end of it [….] Attacks by Boko Haram on townships,
on military installations, will certainly stop.”
-Vanguard
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