Fear of Boko Haram ‘Killer Squad’ Hits Amnesty Committee
Sources close to Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, one of President Goodluck Jonathan’s nominees for the proposed amnesty committee for Boko Haram, have confirmed that the nominee is under pressure to decline to serve because of suspected Federal Government insincerity. Baba-Ahmed is a retired Federal Permanent Secretary and a former secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Hakeem
Baba-Ahmed’s brother, Alhaji Nafiu Baba-Ahmed, is the secretary to the
Dr. Datti Ahmad-led Supreme Council for Sharia’ah in Nigeria. According
to the sources, Nafiu had been involved with the issue of dialogue with
Boko Haram with Dr. Datti before it failed, and he pointed out that they
largely blamed it on Alhaji Hassan Tukur, Principal Private Secretary
to President Goodluck Jonathan. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed is therefore being
pressurized to shun the committee in order to save his life and
integrity.
Another
source in Kano confirmed that fear of a Boko Haram killer squad has
gripped some people named on the presidential amnesty committee because
of the sect’s strongly-worded warning convey to some individuals they
respect to warn the nominees to stay off any mediation talks.
He
said: “Shehu Sani and Datti refused because, they know that it will not
work. Where will the committee meet Boko Haram sect? I swear, no single
person mentioned in the committee ever met a Boko Haram member in
person, the first and second moves through Datti were via a journalist
who happened to have known Mohammed Yusuf. Even he, Datti, never met any
sect member. So how do you reach someone you don’t know or are you just
satisfied with getting money and death attached?”
Already,
Ibrahim Datti Ahmed, the President of the Supreme Council of Sharia in
Nigeria, and Shehu Sanni, president of the Civil Rights Congress, based
in Kaduna, have pulled out. At least one nominee, Sanni, has claimed he
was not even contacted before his nomination was announced.
