President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday expressed the readiness to offer amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect that are willing to drop their arms.
President Buhari said this at a meeting with freed schoolgirls who were previously abducted from their school in Dapchi, Yobe State by Boko Haram terrorists.
“Federal Government is ready to rehabilitate Boko Haram militants who are ready to lay down their arms,” he said.
He also warned security chiefs over any lapse and directed security beef up in schools that are vulnerable to attacks.
President Buhari said further that the negotiation strategy with the terrorists was effective as it aided release of the abducted schoolgirls unhurt.
In a tweet by his Special Adviser Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, Buhari said the negotiation paid off.
“We entered into negotiations solely to make sure that no single girl was hurt. This strategy paid off as the girls have been released without any incidents,” he said.
The President received the freed schoolgirls as well as a boy and one other girl on Friday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
President Buhari met with them in company with some top government officials, including his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali.
The schoolgirls were released on Wednesday, more than four weeks after the insurgents invaded the Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, in Yobe State.
