Amnesty for Boko Haram suffer another setback

Federal Government’s amnesty plan for Boko Haram members suffered another setback on Thursday as the President of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, Dr. Datti Ahmed,rejected membership of the newly constituted  Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North.

His  action came less than 24 hours after  the Executive Director of the Civil Rights Congress, Mallam Shehu Sani, turned down his membership of the committee on the grounds that he was neither consulted nor informed by the Presidency.

Ahmed, a medical doctor,  said he rejected  membership of the committee because of the bitter experience he had with the government when he voluntarily tried to mediate between the authorities and members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, last year.

Alleging  insincerity on the part of the government during an an interview with the Hausa service of the  British Broadcasting Corporation, he said the composition of the amnesty committee was faulty.

 Ahmed argued that  the Chairman of the panel and  Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Turaki,  as well as  the Secretary, who is a nominee of the Office of the Secretary to  the Government of the Federation, would always tell the government what it wanted to hear and “not the truth.”