News: Ex-president Obasanjo holds talks with B.H relatives to free abducted Chibok girls

Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo has met with people close to Boko Haram in an attempt to broker the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the militants, a source close to the talks told AFP.

Reports of the talks emerged Tuesday as Boko Haram was blamed for fresh attacks targeting the security forces, public buildings and a school in its northeastern stronghold.

Cameroon also said it had begun deploying 3,000 extra troops to buttress its border with Nigeria against the threat posed by marauding militants.
On Monday evening, Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, said the 223 girls still missing had been located but cast doubt on the prospect of any rescue by force.
The United States however expressed scepticism that the girls had even been located by Nigeria, stating that it had no “independent information” on the matter.
US State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki told journalists in Washington that “for the girls’ safety and wellbeing, we certainly would not discuss publicly” having found them, even if the reports were true.
Washington has deployed surveillance drones, spy planes and about 30 civilian and military specialists to support Nigeria’s security forces in the search.

The talks last weekend at Obasanjo’s farm in southern Ogun state included relatives of senior Islamist fighters, intermediaries and the former president, the source said on condition of anonymity.
“The meeting was focused on how to free the girls through negotiation,” said the source, referring to the kidnapped schoolgirls, whose abduction has triggered global outrage.
Nigeria’s response to the mass abduction has been widely criticised and the hostage crisis has brought unprecedented international attention to Boko Haram’s five-year extremist uprising.
Activists and pressure groups on their regular march in Abuja welcomed reports by the military the previous day that the girls had been located.
“When the defence chief said that we have identified the location and the camp of these terrorists, hope was restored,” said the head of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Abdullahi Abdulmajeed.
Obasanjo, who left office in 2007, has previously sought to negotiate with the insurgents, including in September 2011 after Boko Haram bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.
The 2011 talks did not help stem the violence and some at the time doubted if Obasanjo was dealing with people with the authority to negotiate a ceasefire.
The source told AFP that Obasanjo had voiced concern about Nigeria’s acceptance of foreign military personnel to help rescue the girls.
“He said he is worried that Nigeria’s prestige in Africa as a major continental power had been diminished” by President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to bring in Western military help, including from the United States.