{{Nigeria’s military said Tuesday it would release some of the prisoners it has taken in the country’s fight against Islamic extremists \u2014 including all the women now held in custody.}}<\/p>\n
The surprise statement from the Defense Ministry, while lacking specifics about how many would be released and when, represents a clear concession by the Nigerian government to the insurgents it is fighting in a military offensive in the nation’s restive northeast. <\/p>\n
The leader of the Islamic extremist network Boko Haram, the main group now fighting the government, repeatedly has mentioned security agencies arresting members’ women and children.<\/p>\n
In the statement, Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade said those released would be turned over to state governors for “further rehabilitation.” It also mentioned a presidential panel now exploring a possible amnesty deal for insurgents.<\/p>\n
“The measure, which is in line with presidential magnanimity to enhance peace efforts in the country, will result in freedom for suspects including all women under custody,” the statement read.<\/p>\n
The statement, like the others issued by the military since President Goodluck Jonathan declared emergency rule May 14, offered no specifics. <\/p>\n
Reuben Abati, a presidential spokesman, also could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
{Agencies}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Nigeria’s military said Tuesday it would release some of the prisoners it has taken in the country’s fight against Islamic extremists \u2014 including all the women now held in custody.}} The surprise statement from the Defense Ministry, while lacking specifics about how many would be released and when, represents a clear concession by the Nigerian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-7960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7960"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7960"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=7960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}