Re-elected Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima has stated that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration will be lobbied to declare amnesty for members of the terrorist Boko Haram sect who are ready to “come out of the bush and de-radicalize”.
Shettima made the pledge as he addressed citizens of Borno during his inauguration today.
He said, “We have gone through the most savage insurgency of the Boko Haram sect, which massacred thousands of our people; especially destroying the cream of Borno youth and ensuring that into the next generation, we will be faced with a demographic crisis that will challenge our creative ingenuity, to overcome.
He blasted the Goodluck Jonathan administration describing it as “a hostile Federal Government, which lived in denial about the savagery of Boko Haram and which also saw the insurgency from the most perverted, narrow and irresponsible prism, that somehow, the insurgency had been fuelled against it, by the political and other elites of this part of Nigeria.”
“They therefore did only the barest and most perfunctory, to stem the problem. Meanwhile, our people suffered and our communities were systematically laid to waste but Democracy has become the saving grace for the people.
“With our votes, we threw out a government at the centre, which did not work in the national interest and have now voted into power, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also being inaugurated into power today in Abuja.”
Shettima said the Buhari administration would be a listening government who would assist the people and the state to grow and to develop.
Speaking on the amnesty program for Boko Haram, he said, “Unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition that will be hallmarked by the continuing destruction of lives and property, it becomes imperative that willing members of the Boko Haram sect that want to come out of the bush must be given the opportunity to be de-radicalized and then rehabilitated to become useful citizens of society,” he said.
“It is never easy to accept back into the community, those who have taken up arms, killed, pillaged, raped and destroyed. But in the long run, society must make very expensive choices for peace, reconciliation and development. We are therefore appealing to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the International Community to assist our endeavour in that regard.”
Borno governor wants amnesty for members of his his Boko Haram militia? Really? Is anyone really surprised to hear that? And Messiah Buhari is set to grant them amnesty, right? Amazing! They used their Boko Haram militia to wage a Jihadist war of attrition against President Goodluck Jonathan and his government. Buhari and the Jihadist North promised to end the Boko Haram insurgency once power returned to the north, didn’t they? Guess what? Soon after Gen. Boko Hari Buhari was declared winner of the recently concluded election, the Boko Haram went on a sudden haitus and have remained calm eversince. Buhari and fellow Fulanis have achieved their their chief objective of regaining political power and now, they want total amnesty for their Boko Haram soldiers, too. I wonder what’s going to become of the 20, 000 non-Muslim peasant families still seeking justice for their relatives kidnapped or murdered by the Boko Haram. The sponsors of Boko Haram are now in power and that means freedom or amnesty for all Jihadist fighters across Nigeria. Allah ki aye.