Retired General Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said he will not be a mediator in the proposed talks with Boko Haram as he did not know any sect member and has nothing to do with the group.
The former head of state spoke in Abuja in reaction to his reported nomination to be among mediators in dialogue with the sect, whose three-year campaign of violence has left at least 3,000 people dead according to estimates by Military authorities.
A purported spokesman for Boko Haram said last week the group was willing to discuss a ceasefire, and named Buhari among four others who should represent the Federal Government in the discussions.
Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change had dissociated him from sect’s mediator team.
“My party has done an excellent job unless you do not want to believe what my party believe,” Buhari said while answering questions from journalists at the meeting of the CPC’s board of trustees for which he is chairman.
“Firstly I do not know any member of the Boko Haram sect. I do not believe and I do not know of any religion that will go and kill people, burn schools.
“There was a stage where I mentioned that I agreed with one intellectual where he said there are three Boko Haram. One was Muhammed Yusuf whom we know of. A leader of the military then in Maiduguri then did what we know in the military about internal security. They looked for Yusuf they handed him over to the police.
“Healthy young man, and he died under a very dubious account in the police custody. Again his in-law was murdered, their houses were razed to the ground, I understood that Borno State government had to pay for compensation.
“The second Boko Haram was a criminal (group that) attacks banks and market places stealing money and they issue a statement that they are Boko Haram. And I said and I have no regret saying it that the biggest Boko Haram is the Federal Government itself, because it has all the powers to stop anarchy in the country.
“Now the social part of the country has been paralyzed, economic activities have stopped. People are no longer thinking of employment, they are thinking of what to eat and how to go about the following day.”
The meeting was attended by Buhari’s running mate Pastor Tunde Bakare, former FCT minister Nasiru El-Rufai, CPC national chairman Tony Momoh, Nasarawa State Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura, former Works minister Hassan Lawal and national secretary of the party, Engr. Buba Galadima.
Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change had dissociated him from sect’s mediator team.
“My party has done an excellent job unless you do not want to believe what my party believe,” Buhari said while answering questions from journalists at the meeting of the CPC’s board of trustees for which he is chairman.
“Firstly I do not know any member of the Boko Haram sect. I do not believe and I do not know of any religion that will go and kill people, burn schools.
“There was a stage where I mentioned that I agreed with one intellectual where he said there are three Boko Haram. One was Muhammed Yusuf whom we know of. A leader of the military then in Maiduguri then did what we know in the military about internal security. They looked for Yusuf they handed him over to the police.
“Healthy young man, and he died under a very dubious account in the police custody. Again his in-law was murdered, their houses were razed to the ground, I understood that Borno State government had to pay for compensation.
“The second Boko Haram was a criminal (group that) attacks banks and market places stealing money and they issue a statement that they are Boko Haram. And I said and I have no regret saying it that the biggest Boko Haram is the Federal Government itself, because it has all the powers to stop anarchy in the country.
“Now the social part of the country has been paralyzed, economic activities have stopped. People are no longer thinking of employment, they are thinking of what to eat and how to go about the following day.”
The meeting was attended by Buhari’s running mate Pastor Tunde Bakare, former FCT minister Nasiru El-Rufai, CPC national chairman Tony Momoh, Nasarawa State Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura, former Works minister Hassan Lawal and national secretary of the party, Engr. Buba Galadima.
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