President Goodluck Jonathan
PRESIDENT
Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said the Federal Government would not
grant amnesty to members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
Jonathan who spoke at a Town Hall
meeting in Damaturu, during his official visit to Yobe State, said
members of Boko Haram, by their mode of operation, deserved no amnesty
in the manner of Niger Delta militants.
The President’s declaration was an
apparent response to Tuesday’s call by Sultan Saad Abubakar III of
Sokoto for “total amnesty” for members of the sect in order to promote
peace in the country.
Abubakar, who by his position as Sultan,
is the spiritual head of Nigerian Muslims, argued that a presidential
amnesty to even one member of the sect, could make others to lay down
their arms for peace to reign in the nation.
Blaming the security challenges
confronting the country on injustice “meted out to the people,” he said
the Muslim community in Nigeria was concerned about the spate of
bombings and killings by Boko Haram members, especially in the North.
But the President said he could not grant amnesty to “ghosts.”
Jonathan said, “We cannot declare
amnesty for Boko Haram because we cannot declare amnesty for ghosts. You
cannot liken Boko Haram to what happened in the Niger Delta.
“Some of these names you hear, Asari
Dokubo, Ateke Tom, when I was a deputy governor, I went to a meeting
with President Olusegun Obasanjo and I saw Asari and Tom in the
Presidential Villa.
“That was the first time I saw them; I
had never seen them before, I did not even know them and I was the
deputy governor of Bayelsa State, one of their hotbeds. It was in the
villa that I met them first during a meeting with the President.
“What I am saying is that in the Niger
Delta case, if you call them, they will come and tell you their
grievances, rightly or wrongly. They will be there to tell you ‘this is
what we want, this is why we are doing this.’
“But in the case of the Boko Haram, you don’t see anybody who will say he is a Boko Haram member, so we cannot declare amnesty.
“For us to declare amnesty, we must be
communicating with people. We cannot declare amnesty for people that are
operating under a veil.
“We can’t even discuss amnesty issue, let them come and tell us their problems and let’s see how we can solve the problem.”
Jonathan said the amnesty declared for
former Niger Delta militants was even poorly managed and that but for
the fact that he was from the Niger Delta, the situation would have been
more disastrous.
He said the managers of the amnesty programme would have made it endless but for his intervention.
The President said the normal thing to
do was that when people for whom amnesty was declared submit their
weapons, rules and regulations would be handed to them in order to get
them out of their criminal activities.
He said, “So when you surrender your
weapons by this date, you will be forgiven. In addition to forgiving you
for illegal possession of arms and ammunition, we will do ABC for you
to get you out of these criminal activities.
“And what happened, as of that date,
some people surrendered. Ordinarily, those people who did not surrender
on that day were to be declared criminals and security agencies supposed
to arrest anybody who holds a weapon.
“But somehow, some people went and
collected weapons again and we were declaring about third phase amnesty,
fourth phase amnesty and amnesty then became endless and I said no.
“And that was for people that were
feasible, people that even Mr. President then was having discussions
with. So, for Boko Haram, we cannot be talking of amnesty now until we
see the people we are discussing with.”
The president refuted claims that his
visit to Yobe State was belated, saying, “it is not true that the
president did not show concern for Borno and Yobe following the security
challenges.”
He said, “I would have been in Yobe much earlier because what affects Yobe or any part of Nigeria, affects the entire country.
“I have come to reassure the people of
Yobe that there is no difference between Yobe and other parts of the
country nor do I discriminate between sections of the country.’’
According to him, the issue of terror is
global because the victims are not limited to citizens of that area or
country alone. It has nothing to do with politics.
Meanwhile, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam told
the President that members of Boko Haram had destroyed 209 public
schools in the state as well as burnt government vehicles and property
worth N2.5bn.
According to the governor, members of the sect have also destroyed private buildings estimated at N629m.
He said his government had spent about N4.8 bn to contain the activities of the terrorists.
Giving a breakdown of the sum, he said
the state government spent an average of N200m monthly to maintain the
operations of security agents deployed in the state to restore peace.
While acknowledging that his government
has so far donated over 150 patrol vehicles to the security agencies,
the governor said the expenses were over stretching the state’s
resources.
He therefore called on the Federal Government to come to the aid of the state.
In Borno State, Jonathan promised to
restore peace. He told the Shehu of Borno during a visit to his palace
that he would collaborate with the state government to ensure that the
state was returned to its old glory.
Borno is the operational headquarters of Boko Haram.
The call for amnesty by Sultan Abubakar
had been greeted with opposition from the various groups in the country
as well as the Christian Association of Nigeria. The Yoruba
pan-organisation, Afenifere, said the call was outrageous.
PUNCH
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