President Goodluck Jonathan has opted for a hardline posture, rejecting the offer made on Monday by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau for the exchange of the more than 200 kidnapped students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, with imprisoned Boko members.

British Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, who is in Nigeria for talks about the international rescue mission, said he raised the issue with Jonathan during a meeting yesterday in Abuja.

“I did discuss this with the president and he made it very clear that there will be no negotiation with Boko Haram that involves a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners,” Simmonds told reporters in Abuja.

Government officials had been divided on the issue. While the likes of Senate President David Mark and Interior Minister Abba Moro had publicly rejected the prisoner swap offer, Special Duties Minister Taminu Turaki and the National Briefing Centre on the insurgency did not foreclose talks in this regard.

Simmonds, however, added that Jonathan remains willing to dialogue with Boko Haram on how to end the group’s campaign of violence which has consumed thousands of lives since it was launched in 2009.

“The point that was also made very clear to me is that the president was keen to continue and facilitate ongoing dialogue to find a structure and architecture of delivering lasting solution to the conflict and the cause of the conflict in northern Nigeria,” Simmonds stated.

•Photo shows President Jonathan.