Oby Ezekwisili, a former World Bank vice president has moved from being  Nobel Peace Prize nominee to become the first high profile Nigerian woman to contest for the country’s presidency with the incumbent.

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Former Cabinet minister Oby Ezekwesili co-founded the “Bring Back our Girls”  campaign to help free the 276 girls kidnapped from Chibok in northern Nigeria in 2014.

She’s been endorsed by the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria as its presidential candidate in the election next February.

The 55-year-old believes support from the  youth, who make up the majority of voters in the west African country, will help her shade President Muhammadu Buhari and his former colleague Atiku Abubakar who’s gone back to the opposition People’s Democratic Party to contest the presidential poll.

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The girls were among more than 200 abducted from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by the Islamist extremist group.

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Talks between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram, brokered by the Red Cross and the Swiss government, resulted in 21 abducted schoolgirls being released.

It’s  taken days for their parents to arrive in Abuja, braving bad roads, military checkpoints and the risk of being attacked by insurgents.

More than 200 of the girls are still missing despite the efforts of the Nigerians helped  the US, UK, France, China and Israel.

A total of 276 girls were taken as part of the extremist group’s seven-year fight to establish a strict Islamic state in the northeast of the country.

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They’re rescuing hundreds of women and girls abducted and held for months, even years, by the terrorists.

It is little more than a year ago that Nigerian soldiers fled – outgunned and outnumbered by Boko Haram.

This left the road open for the Islamist militants to abduct more than 300 schoolgirls from their homes in the town of Chibok.

Now supported by forces from neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, the Nigerian soldiers are better armed and getting their hazard pay which boosts their morale.

They’re cutting off Boko Haram’s supply lines and retaking towns as security forces prepare what they say will be a knockout blow to the militants who’ve held sway in northeast Nigeria for years.

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An unknown number were stoned to death, at least ten were crushed with an armoured car and three were killed by a landmine that exploded as they walked to freedom. Others died in the crossfire during the rescue operation.

Accounts of the slaughter of woman and girls by Islamist militants comes from captives themselves now removes from the conflict zone in the northeast of the country.

Nigeria’s military says it freed nearly 700 Boko Haram hostages in the past week.

They’re still trying to ascertain if any are so-called Chibok girls, whose mass abduction from their school a year ago sparked outrage worldwide.

Some of the girls say they had been picked out for marriage to Boko Haram militants.

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The army announced the rescue on Twitter says says it’s now screening and profiling the girls and women.

More than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped from Chibok in northeastern Nigeria by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram just over a year ago.
The militants took the schoolgirls in trucks into the Sambisa Forest and the girls have been missing since.
The plight of the schoolgirls has grabbed international attention and the BringBackOurGirls campaign.

The Nigerian army announced two weeks ago that it is going into Sambisa Forest, which is a center for the Boko Haram fighters.

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But in his interview with the BBC, Jonathan admits that his army doesn’t known the whereabouts of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram 14 months ago.

President Goodluck Jonathan postponed elections in Nigeria so he could turn around Boko Haram’s bid to create an Islamic caliphate in the north east of his country.

He says he’s achieved this. Nigerian forces, backed by troops from Cameroon, Niger and Chad are driving the integrists out of towns taken in their six year terror operations.

He says they’ll be beaten within a month.

However he admits that they’re no closer to rescuing the Chibok schoolgirls seized by Boko Haram last April.

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He says the 200schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok more than six months ago have converted to Islam and been married off to fighters.

Abubaker Shekau who speaks for the Islamist militant group Boko Haram denies claims by the government a fortnight ago that there’s been a truce that will end in the release of the kidnapped schoolgirls.

Boko Haram’s not made a ceasefire with anyone, he insists. It’s not negotiating with anyone.

Boko Haram remains bent on controlling the north east of Nigeria.

Its five-year insurgency has cost more than 2 000 civilian lives.

He says the abducted schoolgirls are now all in their marital homes.

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This a fortnight after a wave of attacks and kidnappings by the Islamist militants flew in the face of claims by the Abuja authorities that they’d secured a truce.

A presidential spokesman in Abuja expresses optimism that something concrete and positive will come from the talks with Boko Haram.

He’s clearly referring to the release of 200 schoolgirls seized by the terrorists six months ago.

Boko Haram’s refused to acknowledge any truce with the government it’s pledged to overthrow.

Indeed it’s continued attacks and abductions in the north east of the country it’s seeking to control.

Nigerian presidential spokesman Reuben Abati says the governments of Cameroon and Chad are also involved with the negotiations.

This is viewed as significant because Boko Haram often operates in their territories.

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The  Abuja government’s  adamant it will continue negotiating with Boko Haram, despite the breach of the truce.
It’s goal is to secure the freedom of  more than 200 girls abducted by the terrorists  in April.
Boko Haram hasn’t  committed to either the truce or the   release of the schoolgirls – some of who have been married off to fighters.
The Nigerian government hopes they will do this in talks currently underway in neighbouring Chad.
The kidnapping’s added global pressure to the insistence of the parents in Chibok for the Nigerian authorities to secure their release.

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He’s finally seen parents of the victims and some of the schoolgirls who’ve escaped from Boko Haram.

More than 150 people were specially bussed into the capital Abuja for the meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.

They were parents of the kidnapped schoolgirls and some of the abductees themselves who’ve managed to escape

Some of them said they were comforted by the president’s assurances.

Jonathan’s been severely criticised for failing to free the girls who been held for more than three months.

Violence in North-East Nigeria’s increasing as Boko Haram becomes emboldened in its attacks aimed at establishing an independent Muslim state.

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