video of the schoolgirls kidnapped by
Boko Haram in which they beg him to
spare their lives through a prisoner
swap, sources close to the militia have
told The Telegraph.
The video was said to have been
handed to Goodluck Jonathan's office
by an intermediary who started a
dialogue with the group two weeks ago.
The intermediary, a Nigerian journalist,
obtained the video as a way of proving
to Mr Jonathan's office that he had
authentic lines of communication to
Boko Haram's leaders.
However, the source claimed that a
subsequent deal to release the girls -
planned for a week ago on Monday -
was scrapped after Western
governments placed pressure on Mr
Jonathan not to negotiate for any
prisoner swap.
The deal would allegedly have seen
around 50 of the girls released in
exchange for an equivalent number of
Boko Haram fighters currently in
Nigerian jails. The Nigerian government
has denied that any deal was on the
table, and has so far neither confirmed
nor denied the existence of the video.
Claims of the video's existence
surfaced as Nigeria's Chief of Defence
Staff claimed that the military now
knew where the girls were located.
Speaking on Monday, Staff Air Marshal
Alex Badeh, described it as "good news
for the parents" but said that the
military would not risk "going there with
force".
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However, he declined to give specific
details, raising speculation about the
accuracy of his claims. The Nigerian
military has made several
unsubstantiated statements in the
past over the girls, including a claim last
week that it had been tracking them
ever since they were kidnapped in mid-
April.
The Nigerian journalist who is said to
have obtained the latest video was
named by the source as Ahmed Salkida,
who is from the north-east state of
Borno, which is Boko Haram's main
stronghold.
His contacts with the group have been
so close that on past occasions he has
been arrested on suspicion of being a
sympathiser, and two years ago he
moved with his family to Dubai.
However, around four weeks ago, the
Nigerian government agreed for him to
come back to Nigeria to see if he could
assist in negotiating for the girls'
freedom. He and a trusted cleric then
risked their lives by heading up into the
remote bushland areas where the
group operate, meeting a senior
assistant of Boko Haram's leader,
Abubakar Shekau.
"The government said to the
intermediary to prove himself to show
whether he was capable of brokering a
deal or not, and insisted that he should
obtain proof of life of the hostages,"
the source said. "So during his talks
with the insurgents, he obtained a DVD
which had clips of girls being
interviewed by members of the group,
in which they asked President
Jonathan to do a prisoner swap to get
them freed.
"That DVD was shown to the
government, and a deal was arranged
so that the girls would have been
released a week ago on Monday, but at
last minute the government backed
out."
The precise reasons for the
government's alleged change of mind
were not known, said the source. But
he pointed out that the weekend
before the proposed release date, Mr
Jonathan was at the summit to discuss
the Boko Haram crisis in Paris, also
attended by British and American
officials as well as the governments of
Niger, Cameroon and Mali.
"The Nigerian government got a lot of
offers of co-operation by neighbouring
countries at the summit, and I think that
emboldened them against
negotiations," the source said. "They
also seem to be afraid that if they do a
prisoner swap, they will lose the
support of the West."
As a result, the source said, the
negotiations had now "crashed", with
Mr Salkida returning to Dubai. The DVD
remains in the possession of the
Nigerian government and has not been
released publicly.
The source added that a separate
effort at mediation was now underway
via Nigeria's former president,
Olusegun Obasanjo, who stepped down
in 2007 and was involved in a round of
previous peace talks with the group in
2011-12. Mr Obasanjo is understood to
have held a meeting in recent days with
clerics at his country residence outside
Lagos to explore new channels of
dialogue.
"Mr Obasanjo is very worried that this
kidnapping is casting Nigeria in a bad
light, and is also uncomfortable with
Nigeria inviting other outside nations
to assist," said the source.
"The plan is to get the girls freed in
exchange for some Boko Haram
suspects who have been put in jail but
never actually brought for trial before a
court."
Boko Haram, which wants to impose
hardline Islamic rule on northern
Nigeria, is believed to be holding a total
of around 220 girls hostage. They were
kidnapped
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