Jonathan says no swapping of girls for prisoners —British minister

The British Africa Minister, Mark Simmonds, rising from a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan, on Tuesday, said that President Jonathan had ruled out freeing Boko Haram prisoners in exchange for the release of more than 230 kidnapped schoolgirls.

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Simmonds, who arrived Nigeria on Wednesday for talks about the international rescue mission, said he raised the issue with Jonathan during a meeting in Abuja.
“I did discuss this with the president and he made it very clear that there will be no negotiation with Boko Haram that involves a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners,” Simmonds told reporters in Abuja after the meeting.

Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, had suggested in a video released on Monday that he might be prepared to release the girls if Nigeria freed militant fighters held in the country’s jails.
However, Interior Minister, Abba Moro rejected the plan, telling AFP that the group, which has waged an increasingly deadly insurgency in northeast Nigeria since 2009, could not dictate terms.
Before the President’s position, the Special Duties Minister, Taminu Turaki, had on Tuesday, said that the government was ready for discussions with the militant Islamist group about ending the violence.
But while Simmonds indicated that Jonathan had now ruled that out, he was still prepared to fulfil his pledge of talking to the extremists about wider issues to end the violence.’’
“The point that was also made very clear to me is that the president was keen to continue and facilitate ongoing dialogue to find a structure and architecture of delivering lasting solution to the conflict and the cause of the conflict in northern Nigeria,” he added.
In another development, Major-General Ahmed Mohammed, commanding soldiers hunting for Boko Haram members, in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, Borno State, escaped unhurt on Tuesday, after his soldiers opened fire on him, a report said.
The British Broadcasting Corparation (BBC) quoting witnesses’ account said Major-General Mohammed’s soldiers shot at his car as he was entering the Maimalari barracks.
The British news medium said the soldiers blamed their commander for the killing of their colleagues in an ambush by suspected Boko Haram militants.
However, army spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade, according to BBC, described the incident in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, as an internal matter and said there was no need for public concern.
“But the shooting shows that morale within the army is low as it battles Boko Haram,” says BBC Nigeria analyst, Naziru Mikailu.

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