Borno Governor: Deal with devil if it means getting back kidnapped girls

By Mick Krever, CNN

The governor of Nigeria’s Borno State, where nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday that the government should negotiate with Boko Haram – make a deal “with the devil” – if it means bringing the girls back.

“The issue of not negotiation, of not negotiating with the terrorists – it’s out of the question,” Kashim Shettima said. “If it means talking to the devil, it mean the devil can come down, we can get back our girls.”

Boko Haram, the group that kidnapped the girls, “are a bunch of raving lunatics,” Shettima said.

A month has passed since the girls were kidnapped, and the Nigerian government has been accused of not acting swiftly or efficiently enough to protect villages in the region threatened by Boko Haram.

Sharon Ikeazor, a member of Nigeria’s opposition, told Amanpour that “most of the girls in school had their cell phones” when they were kidnapped.

“They had contacted their parents,” she said. “So they knew when the attack was happening, and the villagers around had reported to the military.”

The government, she said, “could have saved those girls.”