TheCable

All the attacks masterminded by insurgents since the ceasefire announced on October 17 were executed by “other rogues and criminals” and not by the core Boko Haram members, Aminu Wali, minister of foreign affairs, told Reuters on Monday.

According to Wali, who was speaking with the media after meeting Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister, talks between the government and Boko Haram on the release of the abducted Chibok girls have still not been jeopardized, contrary to widespread belief.

“There are still negotiations going on and we expect a lot of progress to be made. Soon, we will announce exactly where we are,” he said.

“Boko Haram are saying that those ones (attacks) were done by other rogues and criminals … Kidnapping has being going on in Nigeria for some time … by miscreants.”

Wali said “dissidents of the main Boko Haram body” were trying to thwart the ceasefire, but they would not succeed.

“Certainly, this is not something that will threaten the negotiations going on,” he said.

“And we will make an effort also to bring back those that have been kidnapped.”

It took just a few hours after the ceasefire declaration for questions about its authenticity to emerge, as Ahmad Salkida, the only Nigerian journalist to have enjoyed unfettered access to the sect before fleeing the country, described the announcement as all shadows and bubbles, saying government did not understand that the Boko Haram ideology could only be neutralised after several years of hard work, which had not begun.

However, doubts over the peace deal actually began gaining traction the following day, after insurgents attacked Abadam and Dzur villages in Borno state, killing nine people.

That agony of that attack had not settled when insurgents again struck at Azare motor park in Bauchi, executing a bomb blast that killed five people and severely injured at least 10 others.