Former military Head of State retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday
gave a rare commendation to the Federal Government for setting up a
committee on the fundamentalist Boko Haram sect.
The Federal Government on April 4, said that a committee would be
set up to look into the possibility of granting amnesty to members of
Boko Haram, who had been waging a bloody campaign against the country in
recent years.
Buhari gave the commendation while addressing newsmen in Abeokuta.
The former head of state who was in Ogun to commiserate with Mrs
Hannah Awolowo on the death of her son, Oluwole Awolowo, described the
amnesty gesture for Boko Haram as a welcome development.
“It is good that the Federal Government has set up a committee on
amnesty. I have not seen the terms of reference but it is a good step in
the right direction.”
He described the decision as a bold step capable of restoring peace
to troubled areas of the country, adding, “whatever that will bring
peace to us as a people, we should do”.
Buhari who noted that there had been precedence on the issue of
amnesty, recalled that the former Niger Delta militant group once
benefitted from a similar gesture.
“This is not the first time amnesty will be granted to a violent
group. You remember it was granted to the militant group in the Niger
Delta during the time of late President Musa Yar’adua.”
Buhari, a former presidential candidate of the Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 general elections, was accompanied
by Mr Tunde Bakare, his running mate during the elections.
The CPC chieftain, who had earlier addressed party supporters, said
he was in the state to condole with the Awolowo’s over the death of
Oluwole.
He said that he would also go to Ekiti, to commiserate with the
government over the death of Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka, the Deputy Governor
of the state who died on
April 6. (NAN)
bad for themselves either.
