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?
“What have we done? If there is room for forgiveness, we are not going to do it until God gives us permission to do it. Have you 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?”
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