Service Chiefs Endorse Amnesty For Boko Haram

The military authorities are expected to present a common report and recommendations to the panel set up under the watch of the national security adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), last week where they would endorse amnesty for Boko Haram but insist on retaining soldiers on the streets of the volatile states.
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 terrorising some states in the north.
At the meeting presided over by the president were  the NSA; the chief of defence staff, Admiral S. Ola Ibrahim; the chief of army staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika; the chief of air force, Air Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh; the chief of the naval staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba; the inspector-general of police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar; the director-general of the State Security Service, Ekpenyong Ita;  the director, Military Intelligence (DMI), Brigadier-General Letam Wiwa; and the DG, Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), Major General S.Y. Audu. Others were the ministers of state for defence Erelu Olusola Obada, interior Abba Moro and police affairs Caleb Olubolade.

At the end of the meeting that lasted several hours, the committee set up was given terms of reference and its meeting would be held under the chairmanship of the NSA and has two weeks to submit its report.
The committee has as its terms of reference:
*To consider the feasibility or otherwise of granting pardon to the Boko Haram adherents
*Collate clamours arising from different interest groups who want the apex government to administer clemency on members of the religious sect; and
*To recommend modalities for the granting of the pardon, should such step become the logical one to take under the prevailing circumstance.
Last Tuesday, the chief of defence staff, Admiral Ibrahim, met with all the service chiefs where they deliberated on the proposed amnesty for the Boko Haram sect members. The meeting, according to military sources, lasted several hours as they reportedly reviewed what transpired at the Security Council meeting. Each of the service chiefs was said to have presented his position before all were merged for onward transmission to the NSA panel as a memo.
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 faulted those calling for their withdrawal, adding that ‘‘as long as the factor that brought the soldiers on the streets persists, our soldiers remain on the streets”.
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’s Security Council meeting.

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