We’re Negotiating For Release of Dapchi Schoolgirls –Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has explained why his administration is being careful in rescuing schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok, Borno and Government Girls Science and Technical College, Daphi in Yobe State.

He told the United States of America Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, that he prefers to have the girls back alive, hence, government’s adoption of negotiation, rather than military option.

He said this at a closed-door meeting with Tillerson, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, yesterday.

This was even as Tillerson described the abduction of the 110 schoolgirls from Daphi as “heartbreaking.”

President Buhari added that Nigeria is working in concert with international organisations and negotiators, to ensure that the girls are released.

“We are trying to be careful. It is better to get our daughters back alive,” the president reiterated.

He thanked America for assistance in the fight against insurgency, and noted that Nigerian forces are good, “but need assistance in the areas of training and equipment.”

President Buhari promised that his administration would continue to do its best to secure the country, and added that he would be in Yobe, later this week, “as part of my condolence and sympathy visits to areas where we have had unfortunate events.”

At the meeting, the president pledged free and fair polls in 2019, and recalled how Tillerson’s predecessor, John Kerry, visited Nigeria before the 2015 polls, “and he told the party in government then, and those of us in opposition, to behave ourselves, and we did.”

culled from Olu famous Mr Olumide's Blog