Nigeria - Boko Haram Senior Commander Aliyu Tashaku Reiterates Conditions For Cease Fire
https://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2013/05/nigeria-boko-haram-senior-commander.html
One of the leaders of the Boko Haram sect, Aliyu Tashaku, yesterday ruled out talks with the federal government unless it met its conditions for peace.
And they were a quiet lot of conditions in-spite of the several dialogue efforts by concerned pressure groups.
In an interview granted to the Hausa Service of Radio France International (RFI) monitored in Sokoto, Tashaku said that the federal government would need to convince the sect of its sincerity by releasing Boko Haram members in detention and halting further arrests.
The conditions given by Tashaku reaffirm previous conditions that the sect had in order to come to the talking table. This came on the back of the release of video clips which showed women and children that the sect had kidnapped in retaliation for the arrest of its members’ wives and children.
Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for the attacks in Baga and Bama, in which scores of people were killed.
Tashaku was also unenthusiastic about the Presidential Amnesty Committee for Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North and demanded that the federal government rebuild the sect’s mosques and members’ houses demolished by security operatives.
He said that members of the Boko Haram sect should be allowed to perform their religious obligations like adherents of other faith.
He didn’t stop there.
He also called for the withdrawal of soldiers from their religious centres after which the leader, Sheik Abubakar Shekau, would come out and give the sect’s commitment to the negotiation process.
He explained that the sect had decided that it would meet with the amnesty committee. Some captured members have met the committee already.
“In the first instance, the Boko Haram sect opened up to the amnesty committee because we realised that some members of the committee are men of integrity who will stand on the path of truth and ensure justice and fairness,” he said.
He accused the federal government of discrimination in mishandling thee security challenges in the country, adding that nothing has been done by the federal government against those who massacred policemen in Nasarawa last week.
It is worth remembering that a new video clip purportedly released yesterday by Boko Haram showed leader Shekau with women and children it said the group abducted in response to the arrest of its members’ wives and children.
In the video, Shekau also said the group was behind two recent attacks in the north-east, which left an estimated 240 people dead.
“No one in this country will enjoy his women and children if the relatives of Boko Haram members were not released,” he said.
Shekau confirmed that the group carried out a series of attacks in recent weeks – including a raid on May 7 by about 200 heavily-armed men on Bama village, in Borno near Nigeria’s border with Cameroun.
“We are the ones that carried out the Bama attack,” he said.
It claimed the lives of 55 and the sect released 105 prisoners.
Shekau also said Boko Haram had also carried out a “small operation” on the northern town of Baga on April 16. That ‘small operation’ claimed the lives of almost 200 persons.
With the president declaring a state of emergency last night though and urging the military to spare no expense in quelling the insurgence, we wonder where this leaves the conditions by Boko Haram. It would appear that Mr President is done talking.
In an interview granted to the Hausa Service of Radio France International (RFI) monitored in Sokoto, Tashaku said that the federal government would need to convince the sect of its sincerity by releasing Boko Haram members in detention and halting further arrests.
The conditions given by Tashaku reaffirm previous conditions that the sect had in order to come to the talking table. This came on the back of the release of video clips which showed women and children that the sect had kidnapped in retaliation for the arrest of its members’ wives and children.
Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for the attacks in Baga and Bama, in which scores of people were killed.
Tashaku was also unenthusiastic about the Presidential Amnesty Committee for Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North and demanded that the federal government rebuild the sect’s mosques and members’ houses demolished by security operatives.
He said that members of the Boko Haram sect should be allowed to perform their religious obligations like adherents of other faith.
He didn’t stop there.
He also called for the withdrawal of soldiers from their religious centres after which the leader, Sheik Abubakar Shekau, would come out and give the sect’s commitment to the negotiation process.
He explained that the sect had decided that it would meet with the amnesty committee. Some captured members have met the committee already.
“In the first instance, the Boko Haram sect opened up to the amnesty committee because we realised that some members of the committee are men of integrity who will stand on the path of truth and ensure justice and fairness,” he said.
He accused the federal government of discrimination in mishandling thee security challenges in the country, adding that nothing has been done by the federal government against those who massacred policemen in Nasarawa last week.
It is worth remembering that a new video clip purportedly released yesterday by Boko Haram showed leader Shekau with women and children it said the group abducted in response to the arrest of its members’ wives and children.
In the video, Shekau also said the group was behind two recent attacks in the north-east, which left an estimated 240 people dead.
“No one in this country will enjoy his women and children if the relatives of Boko Haram members were not released,” he said.
Shekau confirmed that the group carried out a series of attacks in recent weeks – including a raid on May 7 by about 200 heavily-armed men on Bama village, in Borno near Nigeria’s border with Cameroun.
“We are the ones that carried out the Bama attack,” he said.
It claimed the lives of 55 and the sect released 105 prisoners.
Shekau also said Boko Haram had also carried out a “small operation” on the northern town of Baga on April 16. That ‘small operation’ claimed the lives of almost 200 persons.
With the president declaring a state of emergency last night though and urging the military to spare no expense in quelling the insurgence, we wonder where this leaves the conditions by Boko Haram. It would appear that Mr President is done talking.
