Boko Haram has expressed its willingness to negotiate the release eighty-three more Chibok girls.

Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said days after the release of twenty-one abducted girls.

Shehu said leaders of the Islamic State-affiliated group released twenty-one girls on Thursday to assure the Buhari administration their faction held the girls.

Nearly 300 Chibok school girls were abducted by the sect in April 2014.

President Buhari has repeatedly said he would be willing to negotiate with the group if its genuine leaders are identified.

The Boko Haram faction said the remaining kidnapped Chibok girls were with another faction of the sect controlled Abubakar Shekau, Reuters Foundation quoted Mr. Shehu as saying.

Boko Haram has apparently split into at least two factions.

One is believed to be controlled by the elusive leader, Shekau, and another by Musab al-Barnawi, who is said to be the son of the group’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf.

Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, on Thursday, denied reports that the government had swapped captured Boko Haram fighters for their release and said he was not aware if any ransom had been paid.

President Muhammadu Buhari said in Germany he was not informed of what the government traded for the girls.

He said he would receive full briefing after arriving in Nigeria this week.