President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to grant amnesty to Boko Haram insurgents on the condition that they freed all the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.
The President, made this known during his three-day visit to France in an interview with Agence France Presse on Wednesday.
Buhari told AFP that the Federal Government was negotiating with Boko Haram’s prisoners and could offer them amnesty if the extremist group hands over more than 200 school girls abducted from their hostel at the Chibok Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014.
He said, “We are trying to see whether we can negotiate with the Boko Haram prisoners in our custody for the release of the Chibok girls.
“If the Boko Haram leadership eventually agrees to turn over the Chibok girls to us, the complete number, then we may decide to give them (the prisoners) amnesty.”
Buhari, who has promised to stamp out the group’s bloody six-year insurgency, said the government would not release any prisoners unless it was convinced it could “get the girls in reasonably healthy condition.”
“We are trying to establish if they are bona fide, how useful they are in Boko Haram, have they reached a position of leadership where their absence is of relevance to the operation of Boko Haram?” he said.
He added, “The main conventional attacks, where Boko Haram use armoured cars they took from the Nigerian troops, or mounted machine-guns on pick-up vehicles and so on, we believe by the end of the three months, we will see the end of that.
“What may not absolutely stop is the occasional bombings by the use of improvised explosive devices.
“We do not expect a 100 per cent stoppage of the insurgency.”