Following a declared cease-fire agreement between the Federal Government and Islamist terror group, Boko Haram, there are strong indications that the 218 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by the sect six months ago will be released on Monday, October 20, 2014.
Friday, Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh had announced the agreement between the government and the dreaded terrorist group which has been running a bloody campaign in the North East of the country since 2009 killing over 10,000 people.
“A ceasefire agreement has been concluded between the Federal Government and the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal Jihad (Boko Haram),” Badeh said at a conference in Abuja. He informed the 3-day bilateral conference between Nigeria’s military and Cameroon’s that the service chiefs had been told to comply with the ceasefire agreement. The conference was focused on the coordination of trans-border military operations between the two countries.
The kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls had sparked international outrage and energised the war against terrorism in Nigeria. The terrorist group had demanded the release of their detained militants in exchange for the schoolgirls.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s Principal Secretary, Hassan Tukur, told BBC Focus on Africa that an agreement to end the Boko Haram hostilities had been reached after one month of negotiations in Saudi Arabia with the violent group. The negotiation was said to have been headed by the Chadian President Idriss Deby.
According to Tukur, Boko Haram had announced a unilateral ceasefire on Thursday and the government had responded likewise on Friday.
“The Boko Haram members have assured us that they have the girls and that they will release them. I am cautiously optimistic,” Tukur told the BBC.
A man named Danladi Ahmadu who identifies as the Secretary-General of Boko Haram told VOA’s Hausa-language service that the abducted girls would be released on Monday, October 20 in Chad and he assured that the girls are “in good condition and unharmed”.
The Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said that the “ceasefire means is that there would be no fire”, stressing that there would be cessation of hostilities in line with the terms of the agreement.
