“The girls, we believe, are alive but they have been moved from the location to which they were originally taken.A United Kingdom-based television station, Channels 4 News, disclosed this on Tuesday. The intermediary is said to have a long experience of dealing directly with Boko Haram in previous hostage crises.
"It would not be hard to engineer a deal. It looks like they want to release them. They want a way out. “They have a problem. They have over 200 captives and moving them around cannot remain hidden. There is good, reliable, local knowledge as to their location. The military knows where they are."
The station quoted him as saying that the girls’ release is “within reach,” he also warned that their fate rested on a knife-edge because of the fear by the insurgents that the military might try to forcibly free them.
The negotiator, who want to remain anonymous for reasons of personal security, said Boko Haram demanded a ransom but added, “we are hoping they will soften their stance.”
The kidnappers had warned, however, that attempts by the military to use might to secure the girls’ freedom “may result in the death” of many of them.
The negotiator stated that “the danger now is that the military will get involved and that can only end badly.”
The headteacher of the government secondary, Mrs Asabe Kwambura, had said on Tuesday that 10 more girls had been recovered. “For now, the total number of girls we have recovered is 53 while many others are still missing,” Kwambura said.
