The Nigerian military says it is not involved in negotiations with the bandits that abducted 333 students of Government Science Secondary School (GSSS), Kankara in Katsina State last Friday.
The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during a briefing of journalists on military operations across the nation.
He said that the military would continue its kinetic operations with respect to the abductions while the Katsina State Government was free to negotiate with the abductors if it chose to.
Enenche said that the military was not in the business of negotiating with criminals, insisting that gallant troops would soon liberate the abducted students.
“I don’t know from history where the military or the armed forces go into negotiations when it comes to ransom and I don’t have any record. Nothing is connecting the armed forces with negotiation. If the governor believes in that as a father, he is seeing it in a larger perceptive.
“We are going on with our operations, and we don’t step down our kinetic operations for any reason at all. There is nowhere in the world where you stop your kinetic operation; it is a total package because purported negotiations are going on. It is not done,” the Defence spokesman stated.
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Enenche noted that available information revealed that the abducted students were unharmed.
“Nobody is dead; we have not received anything that anybody is dead from the information that we have on the situation and then, the troops are on guard as it were.
“They have started patrolling the whole of that area which I will not give you the specifics to ensure that they are intact and that we rescue them alive, whichever way,” Enenche said.
He said it was not true that Boko Haram abducted the students, urging Nigerians to disregard an audio recording released recently by Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau claiming responsibility for the abductions.
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