More details emerged yesterday on the membership of the Amnesty Committee set up by President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday. Reliable sources disclosed to LEADERSHIP Weekend that the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III will head the amnesty committee.The sources listed other members of the panel as Major Abdulrasheed Aliyu, a former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasauki (rtd), Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, the director-general of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), and a representative of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF).
At his meeting with NEF leaders led by Dan Masani of Kano, Alhaji Maitama Sule in the State House on Tuesday night, President Jonathan accepted granting amnesty to Boko Haram members.
He held a meeting with security chiefs on the issue the next day before announcing the setting up of the amnesty committee.
Already, prominent northern leaders have appealed to members of the Boko Haram sect to immediately accept the amnesty offered to them by President Jonathan by sheathing their sword.
The appeal to the group to renounce violence and accept the president’s gesture was made by Jama’atul Nasril Islam (JNI) and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).
Meanwhile, Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and his Jigawa State counterpart, Alhaji Sule Lamido, who spoke on the issue yesterday at the Presidential Villa, declared that amnesty committee was President Jonathan’s humble submission to the yearnings of northern leaders over the plight of the people in the region.
Some Borno State elders also welcomed the development but remarked that it would have been more apt if the president had announced the measure during his recent visit to the state.
But the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned the president’s action, describing it as insensitive to the plight of victims of the insurgency led by the armed group.
The leadership of St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, one of the churches that suffered from one of the devastating attacks launched by Boko Haram, said the amnesty offer would enable Nigerians know the killers of their members.
Leaders of the ACF and JNI however, said the proposed amnesty was long overdue considering its implication for peaceful development in the country.
In an interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend, the General Secretary of the JNI, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, said, “We welcome the idea and wished that the committee set up by the president will do a better job.
“If the government had taken this step since, they would have prevented the killings of innocent lives through the act of bombing and terrorism.
“The action is good and it is a right step in a right direction. But we will wait to see the commitment of the committee members.”
The JNI however, urged members of the Boko Haram sect to accept the amnesty offer by coming out to dialogue with the federal government in the interest of peace and development.
“We urge them to come out and dialogue. Because, we believe amnesty is the only way we can restore peace in the country.
So they should accept it,” he said.
ACF spokesman, Mr. Anthony Sani, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that, “though the forum will also make its input to the committee, we believe that the president has shown serious commitment to the issue.
We believe the Boko Haram sect will accept the offer at the end of the day.
To Shema,”If a committee on amnesty is set up, it is done because Nigerians and leaders from the northern part of the country are yearning for a quick resolution to the matter.
And the president is responding positively to this request so that our nation can go on in peace, progress and development.”
After a meeting with the president at the Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday, Governor Lamido said wisdom had prevailed in Jonathan’s decision to grant amnesty to the sect.
Governor Shema had earlier faulted allegation from some northerners that the Northern States Governors’ Forum never championed the amnesty move, saying, “that cannot be correct because if you remember, the body did set up a special committee on peace, healing and reconciliation.
“And that committee has been working very hard and is submitting its second report to the Northern Governors’ Forum and certainly all hands are on deck including traditional institutions, religious and political leaders, even from the services - military, the police, SSS are all part of that committee,” he added.
Shema further said, “So, there have been very serious efforts by the Northern Governors’ Forum to tackle this insecurity in northern Nigeria.
I believe if a security committee is set up is in good faith, is for the good of Nigeria and for the resolution to the crisis that has bedevilled most of northern Nigeria on the issue of insecurity.
“My piece of advice is that there is no nation that can progress without peace and stability.
We need peace and all hands be on deck, those who are aggrieved for one reason or the other should come forward and be able to resolve this crisis, such that our nation and our people can progress and develop rapidly.”
Lamido said: “Wisdom has prevailed. It is all about what do we do to secure our country especially, when Nigeria becomes a country that is very secure and stable so that we confront the problems of human development.
“This country needs our energy, our political skill and a number of things which are begging for attention.
Therefore, whatever it is to be able to get Nigeria united, so to get Nigeria very secure we should do it. So, ignore whatever has been the other misconceptions, we are now doing the right thing.”
Dr. Hassan Hussaini of Bulunkutu Ward Community Islamic Centre, Maiduguri who is also one of the Borno leaders said, “We welcome the decision and setting up of the committee.
We actually expected that the amnesty will come at the end of the day.
We knew that the president will one day listen to the people, particularly, the elders and leaders of the northern part of the country who have severally expressed themselves and demanded for his leniency over the matter to grant them the amnesty like the Sultan of Sokoto who the national president of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs.”
Another elder, Mallam Mohammed Bulabulin, who is also an Islamic scholar in Maiduguri, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that “the constitution of an amnesty committee for the Boko Haram is a good development and Borno people are happy with the development, but it is left to the Boko Haram members to ceasefire and embrace dialogue.”
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