President Goodluck Jonathan was sent a new video of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in which they beg him to spare their lives through a prisoner swap, sources close to the militia told British newspaperThe Telegraph.
The Nation could not confirm last night the receipt of the video.
The video was said to have been handed to the President’s office by an intermediary, a journalist, Ahmed Salkida, who started a dialogue with the group two weeks ago. He is one of the few people trusted by the sect. He obtained the video as a way of proving that he had authentic lines of communication to Boko Haram’s leaders, the report said.
However, the source claimed that a subsequent deal to release the girls – planned for a week ago on Monday – was scrapped after Western governments placed pressure on Mr Jonathan not to negotiate for any prisoner swap.
The deal would allegedly have seen around 50 of the girls released in exchange for an equivalent number of Boko Haram fighters currently in Nigerian jails. The Nigerian government has denied that any deal was on the table, and has so far neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the video.
Claims of the video’s existence surfaced as the Chief of Defence Staff claimed that the military knew where the girls were located. Speaking on Monday, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, described it as “good news for the parents” but said that the military would not risk “going there with force”.
However, he declined to give specific details, raising speculation about the accuracy of his claims.
The Nigerian journalist who is said to have obtained the latest video was named by the source as Ahmed Salkida, who is from the north-east state of Borno, which is Boko Haram’s main stronghold.
His contacts with the group have been so close that on past occasions he was arrested on suspicion of being a sympathiser, and two years ago he moved with his family to Dubai.
However, around four weeks ago, the Federal Government agreed for him to come back to Nigeria to see if he could assist in negotiating for the girls’ freedom. He and a trusted cleric then risked their lives by heading up into the remote bushland areas where the group operate, meeting a senior assistant of Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.
“The government said to the intermediary to prove himself to show whether he was capable of brokering a deal or not, and insisted that he should obtain proof of life of the hostages,” the source said. “So during his talks with the insurgents, he obtained a DVD which had clips of girls being interviewed by members of the group, in which they asked President Jonathan to do a prisoner swap to get them freed.
“That DVD was shown to the government, and a deal was arranged so that the girls would have been released a week ago on Monday, but at last minute the government backed out.”
The precise reasons for the government’s alleged change of mind were not known, said the source. But he pointed out that the weekend before the proposed release date, Mr Jonathan was at the summit to discuss the Boko Haram crisis in Paris, also attended by British and American officials as well as the governments of Niger, Cameroon and Mali
The Nigerian government got a lot of offers of co-operation by neighbouring countries at the summit, and I think that emboldened them against negotiations,” the source said. “They also seem to be afraid that if they do a prisoner swap, they will lose the support of the West.”
As a result, the source said, the negotiations had now “crashed”, with Mr Salkida returning to Dubai. The DVD remains in the possession of the Nigerian government and has not been released publicly.
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