Use Of Force Will Never Bring Chibok Girls Back Alive, Salkida Tells Jonathan

Ahmad Salkida

Salkida, a journalist who facilitated the aborted negotiations between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram, reportedly told President Goodluck Jonathan before the deadlock that force could not bring the abducted girls back alive from the sect’s den.

A competent source in the know of what transpired between the Presidency and Salkida told SaharaReporters that the journalist was blunt when he tabled his case before the government.

The source who was privy to Salkida’s meeting in Aso Rock last week said Salkida had already expressed doubts before he sneaked into the country after the Nigerian government sought his intervention that the government might not play its role but was pressurized by several interests wanting an ending to the bloodshed. 

The source said, “From the beginning, Salkida never wanted to come because of previous experience but after consultations he made up his mind and gave conditions which the government complied, of nothing will happen to him on entry and exit at airport which the President issued a letter of indemnity. 

“On landing, he commenced work and made contacts and at the end gets position of the sect and also briefed the President the condition the abducted girls are in. The girls were fine and well fed. It was a dangerous attempt but as Muslims we believe in Allah we served and everything was smooth with Salkida in reaching the sect.”

On what transpired in the final meeting last week, the source said,

 “The young man told the President that force will not bring the girls alive, and that the sect too have long list of their members and their families killed by Nigerian troops. And there is need to have a common ground so that the girls will be freed and their members too in detention freed as well. After concluding his own part and assignment he left.”

It would be recalled that at the weekend, it was reported the Nigerian government had abandoned negotiations with the militant group.  The Nigerian military was also quoted as saying at the weekend that the location of the girls had been identified, but that force could not guarantee their return. 

“If government were ready for action, the girls would have started arriving last weekend and the journalist will have come with some of them as proof,” the source said.  “And the release of their own members too in prisons and many of them under military and SSS detention.”