After several months of foot dragging and buck passing between the
Presidency and stakeholders in the north on the emergence of Boko Haram and the
possibility of granting amnesty to its members, the Federal government,
yesterday, took a decisive step towards granting members of the sect amnesty as
it set up a committee to look at the feasibility or otherwise of the programme.
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.
A senior security official who was privy to the meeting of the
National Security Council yesterday, said that the President set up an in-house
committee with a two-week deadline to consider the clamour for amnesty for Boko
Haram members and consider its feasibility or otherwise.
The source said: “If the committee,
which will work hand in hand with the National Security Adviser (NSA) decides
that amnesty would be workable, it will then outline modalities for
implementing it’. He added that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the
President never said there would be no amnesty at all but that he would do so
if people come forward to identify themselves for discussion and negotiations.
“It is a complex situation, but
government has obligation to respect public opinion, especially with increasing
clamour for the amnesty from various quarters”, he added.
Under the proposed plan, the Federal
Government is to set up an Amnesty Commission, which would serve as a
quasi-judicial body, to register and cater for repentant members of the sect
and protect them from being harassed or intimidated by security agents.
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