Boko Haram gives list of detained commanders to FG

Strong indication emerged on
Monday that the representatives
of the Boko Haram involved in
the on-going negotiation have
submitted 'a specific list' of
detained commanders the sect
would want swapped for the
Chibok girls to the Federal
Government team on Monday.
A security source, who confided
in one of our correspondents,
said that the security agencies
had also started a process of
verifying the status of those in
the list.
The verification is meant to
ascertain the state of health of
the Boko Haram members.
The source said that the
discussions going on at the
Chadian Capital had witnessed
"tremendous progress."
It was further stated that other
meetings were held in the spirit
of the on-going peace deal with
the insurgents at three locations.
Meetings were said to have taken
place at a location in Nigeria,
Saudi Arabia and Chad, which the
source described as the neutral
and safe ground for both parties.
The source dismissed
insinuations that the insurgents
might decide not to continue
with the negotiation because of
reported confrontations back
home.
"What I can say is that the
meetings are on-going. Over the
weekend, meetings held at
Njdamena, (Chad), Nigeria and
Saudi Arabia so it would not be
right to assume that because
nobody is talking the meetings
have been suspended.
"We have made a big progress, a
very big progress on the issue of
the on-going negotiations. But
these are not the right time to
discuss details," the source said.
The source denied media reports
about recent abductions in Yola,
Madagali and other towns in
Borno State.
It was stated that some of the
events being reported on the on-
going talks took place about
three months ago.
Investigations further revealed
that the security agencies had
taken a decision not to talk on
the on-going deliberations with
the Boko Haram until the
objectives for the meeting were
achieved.
It was learnt that the security
leadership was of the view that a
detailed reportage of the
deliberation was harming the
talks and should be avoided at
this stage of the deliberation.
However, the source would not
give further details when asked
about the number of insurgents
on the Boko Haram list and the
most likely time to expect the
release of the Chibok girls, who
were abducted on April 14, 2014.
"The media should show some
restraint in reporting this matter;
this thing is about the country;
people should not report this
negotiation with sensationalism.
You know how sensitive it is.
"Another thing you must note is
that many of the reports about
this negotiation are false; they
are not true."