Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, yesterday once
again asked that the federal government grant pardon
through a programme of amnesty to Boko Haram members
According to Thisday , Shettima's support for an amnesty
programme for the terrorist group was re-emphasised at an
interactive session organised by his Special Adviser on
Communications and Strategy, Mallam Isa Gusau, with
selected journalists in Abuja.
Gusau said Shettima's call was scientific and had
been vindicated by a very desperate effort of Boko
Haram leaders to stop their fighters from leaving
their fold when a group of 16 members renounced
the sect's ideology in Borno State following which
they were slaughtered by the sect's leaders.
He said: "Governor Kashim Shettima was
misunderstood by many Nigerians when in his May
29 inaugural remarks revisited his stance on the
need to apply a political solution to fighting the Boko
Haram by way of granting a window to admit those
willing to surrender their arms and renounce the
Boko Haram ideology.
"Shettima has held this position from his campaign
days ahead of the 2011 elections for his first term.
He had always advocated a combination of three
approaches, which are: the military which is what
we have in place, an economic approach which is
aimed at providing jobs for people and discourage
citizens that Boko Haram terrorists are recruiting."
"It is important to note that the governor has always
advocated that the three approaches should be
applied together not exclusively. However, the
amnesty issue has been the controversial one. The
governor is not really talking about dialogue as a
start, what he is advocating is to create an opening
for those ready to abandon the sect to be able to do
so freely, so that the sect can be broken.
"He is very particular about hundreds, if not
thousands of members that were conscripted or
forced to join the sect and became killers against
their wish. If attacks on all communities can be
efficiently done, then there wouldn't be need for any
debate on amnesty but we all have seen that many
communities have continued to suffer from these
attacks because the communities are so much, not
only in Borno but round Nigeria and we don't have
the right proportion of security personnel to secure
all communities."
"When insurgents attack communities, they mostly
target male youths, they arrest them and guard
them into bushes. In most cases, even before taking
them out of the towns they attacked, they preach in
support of their ideology with promises of heaven
for adherents and then openly ask aloud if any of
the youths is willing to join them or not and whoever
said he is not ready to join them, they slaughter him
right there sometimes in the presence of his parents
or they lay them on row and shoot all of them in
matter of seconds targeting their skulls.
"We have seen many of these instances in videos
recorded in Gwoza and other parts of Borno State.
Now, what Governor Kashim Shettima has been
saying is that hundreds of these forcefully arrested
and initiated young men may want to run away and
drop their arms and there should be a policy and
programme to admit them so that insurgents lose
members and their strategy of arresting youths and
forcing them to join them which is what they apply
in sustaining their membership, can be deflated and
I think the governor's call on May 29 has been
vindicated less than two weeks ago.
"You might have read it on most news platforms
that on Friday, July 3, 2015, Boko Haram insurgents
beheaded 11 of its members who renounced their
ideology. According to accounts by some locals,
what happened was that some members of the sect
who are indigenes of some villages in Damboa
Local Government Area indicated interest in
abandoning the ideology but most of them were
afraid of the consequences. Out of them, 16
summoned courage to renounce the ideology and
they moved to Miringa village in Biu Local
Government Area of Southern Borno. They wanted
to join some communities like Ajigin and Talala in
Damboa.
"The 16 insurgents went to Miringa on Friday, July 3
according to locals, then at night, commanders of
Boko Haram sent a team to Miringa to fish out the
16 members that denounced the sect. The team
went from house to house and got the 16 members
intact. They didn't fire any shot in order not to
attract soldiers. They took the members out of
Miringa and slaughtered 11 of them and went away
with five. The bodies of the 11 executed members
were found the following day while the other five
were not seen," he said.
Culled from Thisday
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