President paid Boko Haram €3m for 103 Chibok girls

President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly approved the payment of €3 million to terrorist group, Boko Haram, to secure the freedom of 103 abducted Chibok girls.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the president approved the sum of €1 million for the release of 21 kidnapped Chibok Girls in October 2016, before approving another €2 million for the release of a further 82 girls in May 2017.

Five Boko Haram commanders were also part of the second exchange.

According to the report, both deals were negotiated by Ahmad Salkida, a journalist known to have links with the sect, and Zannah Mustapha, a lawyer.

The report read, "The plan called for two exchanges. In the first one, Boko Haram would free 20 Chibok hostages in exchange for €1m.

"If both sides were satisfied with the outcome, the rest of the girls who wanted to come home would be swapped in a second exchange in return for €2 and five imprisoned Boko Haram commanders.

"As Mustapha worked through the details and tried to maintain the confidence of both sides, the Nigerian government began the delicate process of finding prisoners Shekau would deem acceptable.

"Salkida was the man picked for the task. He began to crisscross Nigeria combing jails and interviewing inmates, looking for militants who fit the profile."

The WSJ report indicated that even though the president was not happy with the deal, he hoped that it would be a great step towards negotiating peace with the terrorist group.

The report read, "The President was eager for a victory. He also loathed the idea of paying Boko Haram. No one knew if he would sign off.

"In the end, he approved the deal, with a condition: He insisted that any money that reached Boko Haram would be a step toward a comprehensive peace agreement.

"Since the insurgents collected their €3m, some Nigerian officials say an army that had struggled to feed itself seems replenished"

Abduction of Chibok Girls

In April 2014, Boko Haram invaded Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok and kidnapped 276 female students.

After several escapes and releases, 113 of the girls are still in captivity of the deadly terrorist group.

Boko Haram menace

Since the insurgency of the terrorist group escalated after a 2009 crackdown by the military, Boko Haram, chiefly under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau, has been responsible for the death of over 20,000 people and the displacement of more than 2.5 million scattered across Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps across the country and its neighbours.

After a massive military operation resulted in the displacement of the group from its primary base in the infamous Sambisa Forest, it has resorted to suicide bomb attacks on soft targets and carried out daring attacks on military bases, with hundreds of captives still unaccounted for.