Anxiety As Nigerians Await Chibok Girls Release, Today

Aniety has heightened as Nigerians expect the release of  the 218 schoolgirls abducted six months ago in Chibok, Borno State, by the Boko Haram sect  following a ceasefire agreement between the sect and the Federal Government.
The Federal Government said that it had agreed to a ceasefire with the violent sect and that the Chibok girls would soon be released.The deal was announced by the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh.
Badeh said, “A ceasefire agreement has been concluded between the Federal Government and the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal Jihad (Boko Haram).”
The President’s Principal Secretary, Hassan Tukur, told BBC Focus on Africa that an agreement to end the Boko Haram hostilities had been reached after talks with the violent group.
He said the agreement was reached after one month of negotiations in Saudi Arabia. The negotiation was said to have been headed by the Chadian President Idriss Deby.
Tukur said Boko Haram announced a unilateral ceasefire on Thursday and the government had responded.
He said, “The Boko Haram members have assured us that they have the girls and that they will release them. I am cautiously optimistic.”
Tukur and Danladi Ahmadu, who calls himself the Secretary-General of Boko Haram, told VOA’s Hausa-language service that the abducted girls would be released on Monday in Chad.
The girls are alive and “in good condition and unharmed,” Ahmadu said.
An intelligence source said that the decision to negotiate in earnest with the Boko Haram was taken during the President Jonathan’s meeting with his Chadian counterpart, Mr. Idris Derby, in Ndjamena, on Monday, September 8, 2014.
It was learnt that the President visited Chad with his National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, because of the security dimension to the mission.
The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson; the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed; and the Director-General of National Space Research and Development Agency, Prof. Seidu Mohammed, were also in the President’s entourage.
A Lagos-based security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, said it was not yet time to rejoice over the ceasefire agreement.
He asked the military to be cautious before it started jubilating because the insurgent group had not kept promises in the past.

Former Head of State, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (left) and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, both All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirants, watching with keen interest activities at the APC Rivers State Mega Rally at Igwuruta-Ali, Greater Port Harcourt City, last Saturday. Photo Chris Monyanaga