The Swiss government, the International Committee of Red Cross, and the State Security Service eventually sealed the high-level deal that led to the Thursday release of the 21 of the over 200 Chibok girls Boko Haram abducted at Chibok, Bornu, in 2014.
The team, according to a report by Premium Times, initially comprised Sen. Shehu Sani, Edwin Clarke, activist Fred Eno, lawyer Mustapha Zanna, the Nigerian Army, then led by Kenneth Minimah along with the Red Cross and Switzeland when the negotiation opened n 2014 under President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sani, a rights activist then, initiated the horse-trading by reaching out to the Swiss government through her embassy in Nigeria, who then contacted Zanna, until a link was established with the leadership of the terrorist group
But the negotiation, according to the PT source, got ravelled up midway because of Boko Haram’s inflexibility and lack of realism, lack of support for a negotiated settlement to the insurgency on the part of security forces, and Jonathan’s sympathy for the hard line the security forces took.
“After a few weeks of work, the team nearly secured the release of the girls in 2014,” the report stated.
The president desperately wanted the girls released, but politics of positioning stood in the way of progress,” Eno told the online newspaper.
After the initial effort collapsed, Sani, Eno and Clark wanted out, leaving the Swiss government, Zannah, the Red Cross, and the Nigerian government.
In the renewed deal that began when President Muhammadu Buhari came, the military were left out, especially as Boko Haram would have nothing to do with them for killing its members, and even some of the Chobok girls..
The SSS led the fresh negotiation with the team using the existing line of dialogue established in 2014.
After a deal had been struck, the Red Cross was called in to meet the leadership of the sect as well as sight the girls.
They were eventually released at 5:30 am on Thursday and immediately flown to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, in a chopper. No ransom was paid, and no terrorist swapped in the exchange, according to Information Minister Lai Mohammed.