President Goodluck Jonathan has continued to hold talks geared towards tackling the spate of violence in northern Nigeria.
The latest is a meeting between the President and the Northern Elders’ Forum in Abuja, on Wednesday night.
After the meeting, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, as well as a member of the forum and former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Professor Abdullahi Ango told journalists that amnesty for members of the fundamentalist sect is an option that has not been ruled out.
Present at the meeting were leaders of the group, Yusuf Maitama Sule, Paulen Tallen, Hakeem Baba Ahmed, Kali Gazali, Safiya Mohammed, Solomon Dualong, Sheikh Ahmed Lemu and Shehu Malami.
Other leaders are the meeting are John Wash Pam, Lawal Kaita, Bello Kirfi, Paul Unongo, AVM Al-amin Daggash, Sani Zango Daura, N.A. Sheriff, Yahaya Kwande, Saleh Hassan, Muslim Maigari and Bashir Yusuf, Gen.
Paul Tarfa, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, Prof Idris Mohammed, Captain Paul Tahal and Captain Bashir Sodangi were also present at the meeting.
According to Prof Ango Abdullahi, the meeting which ended at about11:30pm was about the President’s response to the call for amnesty at the meeting, which is sequel to the one held between the president and the NEF in May 2012.
He noted that the meeting was positive and that he (Dr Jonathan) assured the NEF delegation that the amnesty for the insurgents will be tabled before the security meeting on Thursday.
“The meeting is simply a follow-up visit on the invitation of Mr. President. Many of you will recall that about eight or nine months ago, we interacted with the president on matters of the nation.”
“We submitted a memorandum to him and he promised that he was going to look at our submission and he will call us back to further dialogue on the issues we have raised in our submission. And this is precisely what transpired today.”
“The contention here is that there are challenges in the country, especially in the area of security which is the greatest challenge.
What we discussed is that general opinion in the country is that amnesty should be factored into all effort made by government to overcome the security challenges all over the country or in most parts of the North.
Fortunately the president is already thinking hard on it. And he assured us that there is a special meeting on the matter and that I’m sure that tomorrow something substantial will come out of that meeting”.
Also giving details of the meeting the Minister of Information, Mr Labarn Maku, said the President has never said no to the issue of amnesty, adding that what the president is saying is that, just like in the case of Niger Delta, some structures and processes have to be in place before the amnesty option is fully explored.
The Minister further explained that the insurgents need to be identified and come forward before the dialogue that would lead to the amnesty programme is put in place. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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