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Breaking: Corps member kidnapped by Boko Haram freed

A member of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), Halima Umar, who was abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in January, has been freed in a negotiated deal.
Boko Haram*

The deal between the insurgents and the Nigeria military is believed to have been midwived by Nigerian journalist, Ahmed Salkida.

Though the military would not give details of how the woman was rescued, the presence of Mr Salkida and civil society members suggested that the rescue was not through a military operation alone.

The released corps member was brought to the office of the Borno State deputy governor, at about 3.30 p.m., by a group of security officers led by the General Officer Commanding 7 Division, Abdulmalik Biu, a brigadier general.

Mr Salkida, a journalist who has cultivated sources among the Boko Haram, was seen in the company of security officers.

Khaltum Rabiu, the 23-year-old founder of Khaltum Foundation for Peace, a non-governmental organisation in Maiduguri, was also seen among the security officials that came to the deputy governor’s office with the rescued woman.

Both Messrs Salkida and Rabiu played active roles in the negotiation to free Ms Umar, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

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