No fewer
than 90 women and children being held in connection with activities of the Boko
Haram sect are to benefit from the first phase of the presidential directive on
release. A top Defence source, said the decision of the government was designed to send a signal to Boko Haram
that the Federal Government had not foreclosed the option of amnesty as a
solution to the insurgency.
With the decision to set free the women and children, the
government expected the sect to accept the offer of dialogue, adding that more
detainees would be released from time to time based on the outcome of the
negotiations between the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Reconciliation
and the insurgents.
The
President had on May 14 declared a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno
and Yobe states with the aim of flushing out members of the Boko Haram sect. At least, 2,400 people have fled the region for neighbouring
Niger Republic, according to a statement released on Tuesday by the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
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