The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG) has urged the federal government to negotiate with the Boko Haram sect in order to secure the release of the abducted schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State.

The group said the problems of insecurity in the country could only be surmounted through negotiation and intensive prayers.

The MMWG in its Eid-el-Fitr message signed by its National Coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, also called on the security agencies in the country to use advanced intelligence-gathering mechanism to locate the sponsors and perpetrators of terrorism in the country "so that the schoolgirls in captivity could be urgently freed and peace returned to the nation.

"The release of the Chibok girls is taking too much time. As tension, anxiety and uncertainty pervade the nation, the ruling class should know that their utterances, actions and general conducts are responsible for the current state of the nation.

"They could stem the tide of the current crises of insecurity, poverty, unemployment, financial impropriety manifested through corruption and other financial crimes by resolving to show care and benevolence for the masses."

The group also enjoined religious and traditional leaders to live exemplary lives and intensify prayers to solve the problems bedeviling the nation.

It however commended the military, police and other security agencies on their effort to combat crimes in the country, urging them to intensify effort to fish out criminal elements in all parts of the country.