''I think this is about the third time I would answer questions on Chibok girls,'' he said while fielding questions during Wednesday's presidential media chat. ''I could recall mentioning that perceived leadership of Boko Haram wanted to negotiate, but we insisted that bona fide Boko Haram leadership must be established before we can agree with them and on what terms would they release the girls. We want to be sure that they are complete, 209 I think, and that they are safe and sound. But what we know so far, by attacking some of the location in Sambisa forest, no Chibok girl has been recovered. They must have dispersed them all over the place.''
He said the option of negotiation was still very much on the table, but there was no credible intelligence on the girls.
''We are still keeping our options open, that if a credible leadership of Boko Haram can be established and they tell us where those girls are, we are ready to negotiate with no preconditions. We are looking for credible Boko Haram leadership that would convince us that the girls are still alive.
He admitted after a question on intelligence that there was ''no credible information''.
“I am working with Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and I assure you that the questions on Chibok girls are in our minds. There is no firm intelligence where those girls are physically are, and what condition they are in. They keep pushing them around, they are not keeping them in one place.''
During his inaugural speech on May 29, Buhari had said: ''We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.''
But despite the non-rescue of the girls, the president and Lai Mohammed, his minister of information, have been saying Boko haram has been defeated.
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