How We Negotiated With Boko Haram For The Release Of #Dapchigirls - DSS

The details of the negotiation which led to the release of over one hundred Dapchi Schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists, have been finally revealed. 

While speaking on Friday when President Muhammadu Buhari received the schoolgirls at the State House presidential villa Abuja, the Director General of the Department of State Security Service (DSS), Lawal Daura, gave an insight into how the agency negotiated the release of 105 Dapchi school girls.
 
According to PREMIUM Times, the DSS boss who recalled that the president had given “a clear directive to security agencies to use peaceful options to ensure the timely and safe release of the girls”, said what followed that directive was “intense behind-the-scene dialogue spearheaded by the Department of State Services”.


 
Daura disclosed that the Boko Haram terrorist's only condition was their demands for cessation of hostilities and temporary ceasefire to enable them return the girls at the point they picked them, adding that they also required assurances that the government security forces would keep to that request.
 
He said: “The exercise was arduous and quite challenging. The sensitivity of the operation and some uncertainties surrounding it, particularly routes to be used, nature of transportation, realization and concern that the girls were not kept at one place, issues of encountering military checkpoints within the theater and indeed keeping the operation on strictly the principle of need-to-know made the whole exercise more complicating.”
 
Speaking further, the DSS chief said beyond the release of the abducted girls, the primary interest of the service for engaging in the dialogue was informed by the need for permanent, possible cessation of hostilities.
 
Other interests, he said, include discussing the fate of the arrested insurgents and innocent Nigerian citizens being held hostage and the possibility of granting amnesty to repentant insurgents, adding that these factors “presently seem problematic because the insurgents are factionalized while holding various spheres of influence in their guerrilla controlled enclaves”.
 
Daura said the “negative impact of social media on otherwise classified operations, and of course, some of the utterances of the government functionaries who were not competent to comment on the issues, posed challenges that almost marred the rescue efforts”.