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By Demola Akinyemi

ILORIN— The Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, NMGS, has urged the Federal Government to speedily negotiate with the Boko Haram sect in order to secure the release of its abducted members.

NMGS president, Professor Silas Sunday Dada, who made the call while speaking with journalists in Ilorin, yesterday, said negotiation had proven to be more effective and life saving than the use of force.

The abducted men in the video

Recall that some members of the association, working with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, among other professionals, were killed and abducted by Boko Haram members last Tuesday during an oil exploratory work near the shores of Lake Chad.

Dada, who commended the efforts of the present administration and its renewed confidence in tackling the Boko Haram issue once and for all, said the recent sustained offensive by the Boko Haram group was to openly challenge and contest the government’s story on their degradation.

He said:  “It is saddening to observe that the celebrated claim by the Nigerian military for about a year now, over the ‘degradation of Boko Haram,’ which created the flippant impression that the rebellious group has been demoralized, demobilized, defeated, and vanquished, was far from being true after all, as recent happenings have proved otherwise.

“Although, the need to grow Nigeria’s crude oil reserves must have motivated the government to intensify efforts on oil exploratory work in the inland Chad Basin and Benue trough areas, Nigerians deserve to know the real reason NNPC decided to embark on the Maiduguri suicide mission of searching for crude oil at Shekau’s backyard at a time production level has climbed to 2.2 million barrels per day.

‘’Sadly, this daredevil stunt has unjustifiably created a new set of widows and fatherless children.”

He said the huge amount of fund and human resources committed to fight insurgency to a standstill by the present administration largely underscored successes recorded so far

He noted, however, that the story of Boko Haram insurgency would have been different today if the previous administration had handled the saga the way the current administration was going about it.

“Corruption in the security circle and human rights abuses committed by them during the previous administration have hampered efforts to counter the unrest and nip it in the bud. ‘’Those saddled with the constitutional obligations of protecting the lives and property of citizens of the Nigerian state as well as its territorial integrity, chose to do otherwise as evident in recent revelation of how the state resources meant to fight the Boko Haram insurgency was diverted for personal use,” he said.