Vice President Osinbajo made this known,
Tuesday evening, at an interaction with
journalists and activists at the state house in
Abuja.


“There is a lot of negotiation going on,” adding
that government had “gone quite far” with
negotiations to free more girls, but did not
provide details of the negotiations for apparent
security reasons.

UNICEF report

This came as the United Nations Childrens’
Fund, UNICEF, reported that Boko Haram
insurgents have used a total of 117 children,
mainly girls, to carry out suicide bomb attacks
in public places across Nigeria, Chad, Niger and
Cameroon since 2014.
It called for stoppage of recruitment and use of
children in armed conflict as ‘suicide bombers.’
Osinbajo
During the meeting with newsmen, Vice
President Osinbajo hinted that one of the
challenges of freeing the girls was the existence
of two factions in Boko Haram , with each
faction holding on to some of the girls.
One of the factions is led by Abubakar Shekau,
the erstwhile leader of the group, while a
breakaway faction is led by Abu Musab al-
Barnawi, believed to be a son of the late
founder of the group, Mohammed Yusuf.
Osinbajo, however, said the Buhari
administration was very committed to the
release of the remaining Chibok girls and other
captives held by the terrorists.
“It is a matter of conscience that concerns
everyone,” he added.
It will be recalled that Boko Haram seized 276
pupils from the Government Girls Secondary
School in Chibok on the night of April 14, 2014.
About 57 of the girls managed to escape in the
immediate aftermath of the abduction, while
negotiations between the Federal Government
and Boko Haram led to the release of 21 of the
schoolgirls.
Another three were freed by soldiers, while
dozens others escaped on their own.
UNICEF
A UNICEF report entitled Silent Shame:
Bringing out the voices of children caught in
the Lake Chad crisis, said the increase reflects
an alarming tactic by the insurgents.
It said: “So far, 117 children have been used to
carry out bomb attacks in public places across
Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon since 2014:
four in 2014, 56 in 2015, 30 in 2016 and 27 in
the first three months of 2017.
“Girls have been used in the vast majority of
these attacks. The number of children used in
‘suicide’ attacks in the Lake Chad conflict has
surged to 27 in the first quarter of 2017,
compared to nine over the same period last
year.”
According to UNICEF’s Regional Director for
West and Central Africa, Marie-Pierre Poirier,
“in the first three months of this year, the
number of children used in bomb attacks is
nearly the same as the whole of last year— this
is the worst possible use of children in
conflicts.
“These children are victims, not perpetrators.
Forcing or deceiving them into committing
such horrific acts is reprehensible.”