Leader of militant Boko Haram Islamic sect, Abubakar Shekau, yesterday, rejected the idea of any potential amnesty deal which the Federal Government may offer the sect members if the committee set up to look into it gives the go-ahead.
Shekau, in a 30-minute audio recording, where he spoke in Hausa, Arabic and English declared that his group had “not committed any wrong to deserve amnesty”. He said it was the government that should be seeking amnesty from his group and not the other way round, adding that even though the sect was the one wronged and the one that should be asked for amnesty, it was not ready to grant any pardon to the government.
Shekau was reacting to the reported setting up of a committee last week by the National Security and Defence Council to consider the possibility of granting amnesty to Boko Haram. The committee is due to present its report to the council next week.
Shekau’s recorded video statement, first passed by intermediaries of Boko Haram to journalists in Northern Nigeria, yesterday, featured the militant leader talking about the possibility of an amnesty deal. Speaking in Hausa, Shekau said the amnesty deal was “surprising.”
He said: “We are the one to grant them pardon. Have you forgotten their atrocities against us?”
The man in the video later threatened the lives of anyone claiming to be a representative of Boko Haram.
“We are surprised that today it is the Federal Government saying it will grant us amnesty. Oh God, is it we who will grant you amnesty or you are the one to grant us amnesty?
forgotten your sin, have you forgotten what you have done to us in Plateau, the state you called Jos. We emerged to avenge killings of our Muslim brothers and the destruction of our religion. Was it not in Plateau that we saw people cannibalising our brothers?”
How Amnesty talks began
The idea of an amnesty, came to a head in March when the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar called for it. Others have suggested offering an amnesty deal in line with one previously given to militants in the Niger Delta in 2009.
President Goodluck Jonathan had at the end of the National Security Council meeting last week Thursday set up a committee to look into the possibility of granting amnesty to the Islamic sect.
The previous day, the president was said to have met for several hours with members of the powerful Northern Elders’ Forum, NEF at the Presidential Villa where a deal was reached to grant amnesty to Boko Haram members as a means of ending the spate of raging violence across the region.
Specifically, the President wanted an undertaking from the elders that they would impress upon the sect leaders and their followers to lay down their arms and embrace peace, as a condition for offering the olive branch.
Under the plan, the Federal Government is to set up an Amnesty Commission, which would serve as a quasi-judicial body, to register and cater for repentant members of the sect and protect them from being harassed or intimidated by security agents.
A faction of the sect had last Sunday rejected the amnesty offer, saying the group did not ask for it. Spokesman of a faction of the sect, Abu Dardam who spoke on the Hausa service of the BBC stated that they are rejecting the amnesty because they don’t recognize democracy as a form of government and that the group does not agree with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, arguing that justice can only be found in the Holy Quran, that is Shariya system of government.
Go ahead with amnesty, Northern elders tell FG
Meanwhile, Northern elders, yesterday, asked the Federal Government to go ahead with fine-tuning the processes that would lead to granting unconditional amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect despite claims that the group is not seeking pardon.
The elders spoke in reaction to the claim purportedly made by the sect leader, Abubakar Shekau, that it did not do anything to warrant amnesty and that it was the group that should even pardon the government for atrocities committed against Muslims.
The Spokesman for the Northern Elders’ Forum, Prof Ango Abdullahi, told Vanguard in an interview that the argument over who was right or wrong was not as important as achieving peace in the North.
According to the NEF, what matters at the moment is how to bring about a cessation of violence and not who is right or wrong.
Abdullahi said: “We have heard various arguments following the setting up of a committee on amnesty but we are interested in making peace and not apportioning blames.
“If two drivers are involved in an accident that closes a highway, I think the first thing to do is to clear the highway before checking who was right or wrong so that other road users would not suffer unduly,” he said.
“Our advice therefore, is that the Federal Government should not be distracted but should proceed with what it is doing to grant amnesty to the group so as to bring about peace and development in the region,” the spokesman admonished.
Military warns against withdrawal of soldiers from streets
Indications also emerged, yesterday, that the high command of the armed forces was ready to endorse the amnesty proposal of the Jonathan administration, provided the officers and soldiers deployed to the trouble spots where militant groups had been carrying out deadly attacks and bombings were left on standby.
The military high command also argued that if the Boko Haram sect rejected the olive branch of amnesty being offered them by the federal government, then it (military) will be justified on its initial stand that military option is the language terrorrists understand.
Towards this end, the military have resolved to present a common report and recommendations endorsing the amnesty to the panel set up under the watch of the National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd). They would however insist on retaining soldiers on the streets of the terrorist prone –risk states.
At a meeting on Tuesday presided over by the CDS, Admiral Ola Ibrahim, the military chiefs deliberated on the proposed amnesty for the Boko Haram sect members.
Sources said that after several hours, the service chiefs having reviewed what transpired at the Security Council meeting and having presented the position of their services individually, harmonized their position which the CDS would submit to the NSA panel as a MEMO.
“The meeting reviewed last week minutes of the Security Council including several media reports on the issue. They agreed there was a need to let the amnesty option be.
They however expressed reservations if the leadership of the Boko Haram sect would ever accept it. If they don’t, it would justify their position that it is only the force that could call the terrorists to order.
“The Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Ihejirika, was said to have reiterated his position at the meeting that ‘You don’t negotiate with terrorists anywhere in the world because of their selfish agenda’.
The Chief of Defence Staff himself explained to his team that as a Muslim, he knows that the Boko Haram sect members are not behaving as Muslims. He urged his colleagues to let the amnesty be the an alternative to the force.
He said, ‘those who accepted it must meet certain conditions and to be kept under a watch while those who reject it should be decisively dealt with.”
Another source, disclosed that the service chiefs, in their report, stated that the soldiers should remain on the streets as long as the bombing continued.
They (military chiefs) faulted those calling for their withdrawal adding, “as long as the factor that brought the soldiers on the streets persists, our soldiers remain on the streets.”
The source explained that the military strongly believed some people are using the sect for political purposes but appreciate the professionalism in the way the soldiers have been fighting the terrorists.
They also resolved to ensure good welfare package for the soldiers who are involved in the war against terrorism.
If their recommendations are accepted, some retired military officers might be among those that would constitute the Amnesty Committee. Their recommendations might have been submitted ahead of next week Security Council Meeting.
The stand of the Service Chiefs was in line with that of subordination to civil authority and one which shows the armed forces being loyal to their Commander in Chief.
Recall that President Goodluck Jonathan last week mandated the NSA to set up a panel to study the possibility or otherwise of granting amnesty to the Boko Haram sect whose members have been terrorizing some states in the North in their quest to impose Sharia on the polity.
At the meeting presided over by the President were the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral S Ola Ibrahim, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Azubuike Ihejirika, Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh, Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba-, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar.
Others were the Director General of the State Security Services, Ekpenyong Ita, Director, Military Intelligent (DMI), Brigadier- General Letam Wiwa, DG, Nigerian Intelligent Agency (NIA), Major General S.Y Audu. Others were the Ministers of State for Defence, Erelu Olusola Obada, Interior, Abba Moro and that of Police Affairs, Caleb Olubolade.
