Nigeria says it will rather negotiate for the release of schoolgirls abducted last month from the town of Dapchi in Yobe state than taking military action to rescue them.
President Muhammadu Buhari told the outgoing US Secretary o State, Rex Tillerson, “We are trying to be careful. It is better to get our daughters back alive”. Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped 110 girls last month from Dapchi after raiding their school.
The Nigerian helmsman said that Nigeria was working with international organizations and negotiators to ensure that not only the Dapchi girls would be released unharmed, but also those abducted in 2014 in Chibok, Borno state.
He also thanked the US for its help in fighting the Boko Haram insurgency but called for more assistance in the areas of training and equipment.
President Buhari pointed out that the government dropped the idea of military action because apart from the hard-to-control bloodshed that could result from such option, there is no guaranty that the captives will be freed alive.
He also assured the top US diplomat that his administration would conduct free and fair elections in 2019. The President recalled the visit of a former US Secretary of State before Nigeria’s 2015 elections. He said that Secretary John Kerry “told the party in government then, and those of us in opposition, to behave ourselves, and we did.”
