The
Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar III, on Tuesday asked
President Goodluck Jonathan to grant members of the Islamist militant
group, Boko Haram , “total amnesty” for the sake of 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.
Abubakar spoke at the meeting of the Central Council of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam in Kaduna.
He said as Jonathan prepares to visit
Maiduguri, Borno State, where the sect has its root, he should
consider the amnesty option as a surest way to make peace reign once
again in the country.
“Ours is to advise and we will continue
advising the government. If they do what they are supposed to do, that
would be fine,” he said, adding that one of the primary duties of
government was to ensure the protection of the citizenry.
But the Christian Association of
Nigeria flayed the call by the Sultan, saying it was an indication that
he knows the members of Boko Haram.
“Maybe the Sultan knows the Boko Haram
members. If he is seeking amnesty for them, it shows that he knows
them, because you cannot call for amnesty for people you don’t know,”
the General Secretary of CAN, Dr. Musa Asake, said in an interview with
The PUNCH.
Asake added, “All we have been asking
is: who are these people? They are faceless people but if someone is
calling for amnesty for them, it shows that such a person knows them and
if he knows them and calling for amnesty, then there is a problem.
“If the Sultan knows the Boko Haram
members, is he saying that Boko Haram members are fighting a just cause?
Will they actually receive the amnesty wherever they are? Are they
going to accept the amnesty since we don’t really know them? If we get
answers to the above, CAN will be able to make further comment.”
Also, a CAN group in the North,
operating under the aegis of “Tarayar Ekklisiyar Kristi A Nijeriya,”
said the Sultan’s call should be treated with all seriousness.
The spokesperson for the President of
TEKAN, Mr. Sunny Oibe, said, “If these Boko Haram members are faceless
and now the Sultan of Sokoto is suggesting amnesty for them, it
therefore means that he knows the people all these while but has refused
to come out and tell us the truth. So, we now know who the Boko Haram
members are and the Federal Government should be able to take a decisive
action against them.
“If he doesn’t know them, how can he
call for amnesty? The government should descend on all those who have
been shielding Boko Haram members but now coming out stylishly to demand
amnesty. The Federal Government now knows them and they know what to do
with them, instead of playing a hypocritical game.”
The Sultan had also at the meeting
debunked insinuations in some quarters that leaders, especially
religious leaders, were not doing enough to halt the crises in the
North and other parts of the country.
He claimed that religious leaders,
especially Muslim leaders, had done well and would continue to call
on the government to be just in whatever they did.
Abubakar said, “My dear brothers and
sisters, we are facing a lot of challenges in this country and as
Muslims, we owe it as a duty to everybody to ensure that we contribute
positively to the peace and stability of this country.
“We have been talking and will continue
talking. We will not get tired of talking until the Almighty Allah takes
us away. Because we believe that it is only when we dialogue that
issues will become clearer. I believe we are all patriotic; we all love
ourselves and we all love our neighbours as Almighty Allah says.
“As Muslim leaders, we are very
concerned and very worried about the way things are going on, especially
the insecurity issue in this country. We have problem in the North; we
have in the South -East; we have in the South- West and in the South –
South and it remains the duty of the government to protect all of us.
“We have been hearing about terrorism
everywhere and every day, I want to use this opportunity to say that we
have heard in the news that Mr. President will be visiting Maiduguri in a
couple of days.
“We want to use this opportunity to call
on the government, especially Mr. President, to see how he can declare
total amnesty for all combatants without thinking twice; that will
make any other person who picks up arms to be termed as a criminal. If
the amnesty is declared, the majority of those young men running would
come out and embrace that amnesty and some of them have already come out
because we have heard some of the stories in the newspapers.
“Even if it is one person and he
denounces terrorism, it is the duty of the government to accept that one
person and see how he can be used to reach others. Whether it is true
or not, the government should accept that person first, evaluate him and
see whether he is genuine or fake.
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