Insurgency: President Jonathan Holds Talks With Chadian President - Idriss Deby in Chad

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan is to travel to Ndjamena today for talks with his Chadian counterpart, President Idriss Deby, in continuation of the Federal Government’s efforts to forge a stronger alliance against terrorism and violent extremism ravaging northern Nigeria and her neighbours.

The talks in Ndjamena with President Deby, who is also the current chairman of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, were to come as follow-up on discussions in Nairobi, last week, on the sidelines of the African Union Peace and Security Council Summit.

Presidential spokesperson, Reuben Abati, in a statement on Sunday, noted that President Jonathan and his host would discuss the further actualisation of agreements for greater cooperation against insurgents and terrorists reached by Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon at a meeting in Paris, earlier this year.

Their talks, he said, were expected to lead to the strengthening of the Paris accord on joint border patrols, intelligence sharing and the prevention of the illicit movement of terrorists, criminals, arms and ammunition across shared borders.

Before returning to Abuja on Tuesday, President Jonathan, who will be a special guest of honour at an international conference on Information Technology and Communication holding in Ndjamena on the same day, will be accompanied by the National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd), Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Nurudeen Mohammed and the Director-General
of the National Space Research and
Development Agency, Professor Sheidu Mohammed.

  - Tribune

Obasanjo: "I Have Access to Boko Haram, Some Chibok Girls May Not Return", Bemoans Government's 'Cold Shoulder'

LAMENTING the continued detention of the Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram insurgents, former President Olusegun Obasanjo Thursday declared that some of them may never return.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa  Service monitored in Kaduna Thursday, Obasanjo  said that perhaps succeeding generations would continue to remember those female students who were abducted by suspected Boko Haram members in April.

He disclosed that only those girls who would later get pregnant and find it difficult to cater for the babies in the forest who might be released by the insurgents.

Obasanjo said that he had ways of communicating with the suspected Boko Haram members but the government had not permitted him to do so.

He noted that the girls might have been separated, and were not kept in the same location.

He said: “I believe that some of them will never return. We will still be hearing about them many years from now. Some will give birth to children of the Boko Haram members, but if they cannot take care of them in the forest, they may release themselves.”

A human rights activist, Mallam Sani, who spoke with The Guardian in an interview, explained that Obasanjo recently revived a plan for dialogue with the insurgents’ family members, but the government had not shown any interest.

According to him, the anti-terrorist laws in the country forbid any individual or group delving into such matters unless the government gives a waiver for such an intervention.

Guardian Newspaper