B/Haram denies ceasefire talks with FG

A Boko Haram faction, Islamic State West Africa Provence (ISWAP), has given the reason it released the girls kidnapped from the Government GirlsTechnical College, Dapchi in Yobe state. The group, in an audio recording exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, said the girls were freed because of its allegiance to the leadership of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In the recording, the faction’s head of Shura (highest decision body), Abu Bashir, urged its members to remain loyal to ISIL. The federal government, on 25 March, announced a five-day ceasefire for the return of the girls.
Information Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed, in a statement, said: “The week-long ceasefire is besides ongoing broader negotiations for a permanent ceasefire with the insurgents.” The minister said the insurgents were compelled to release the students and others because their capture was against government’s negotiations with the group. The claim was affirmed by the Director- General of the Department of State Security Service (DSS), Mr. Lawal Daura.
Bashir, in the audio obtained by SaharaReporters, said the group abducted the Dapchi school girls to force the release of some of its members in detention and get paid ransom. However, added Bashir, as soon as it consulted ISIL leaders, it responded that the abduction, especially of Muslim girls “cast the group in bad light”, especially at a time it is struggling to win over Muslims in West Africa, including in Niger Republic, after it drifted from the Abubakar Shekau faction, which still holds some of the Chibok girls after four years of abduction.
ISWAP said after it preached to some of the Dapchi girls, they promised to embrace its brand of Islam. The group added that the girls even asked for directions on their way back home on how to return, explaining that it had no control over whether or not the girls would accept what it preached.(Premium Times)

 

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