President Goodluck Jonathan said the government would not give amnesty to “ghosts”.
The issue cannot be discussed, for now, he said emphatically.
Dr. Jonathan spoke in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, on the first leg of his visit to the twin states of Borno and Yobe – epicentre of Boko Haram insurgency.
The government, he said, cannot grant amnesty to “ghosts”, adding that there is no parallel between the Boko Harma insurgency and the militancy in the Niger Delta, which was tackled with amnesty programme by the Yar’Adua administration when he was vice president.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, and a committee of the North’s elders set up by the Northern Governors have urged the President to grant amnesty to the sect’s members to end the insurgency and killings being carried out by the sect.
No fewer than 1,000 people are believed to have been killed by the sect, in addition to paralysing the economies of the two states.
The President denied that he had deliberately refused to visit Yobe and Borno states.
He met with stakeholders in a Town Hall Meeting at the Wawa Hall of the Government House in Damaturu, saying he does not discriminate against any section of the country.
He said: “Even the media said the President was going to Yobe to declare amnesty… you cannot declare amnesty for ghosts. Boko Haram is still operating as ghosts. You don’t see the person. I am from the Niger Delta and I know the amnesty issue of the Niger Delta. Some of these names you hear- Asari Dokubo, Tom Ateke – I never knew them before, until when I was a deputy governor and went to Abuja for a meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo at the villa. I never knew them, even though I’m from Bayelsa State, the hotbed of the militancy at the time.
“What I am saying is that in the Niger Delta, if you call them, they will come and tell you their grievances, whether rightly or wrongly, but they will be there to tell you that this is what we want and this is why we are doing this.
“But the Boko Haram, you don’t see anybody who says he is a Boko Haram (member). As such, you cannot declare amnesty. For you to declare amnesty, you have to be communicating with people. You cannot declare amnesty for people that are operating under a veil, so we cannot even discuss the issue of amnesty.
“Let them come, let us discuss how we solve the problem. If amnesty will solve the problem, no problem about it. We can define what the amnesty is. I say so because even the Niger Delta amnesty was poorly managed with a lot of challenges. If I were not from the Niger Delta, the whole thing would have been disastrous by now because of the way it was poorly managed,” the President said.
Explaining his inability to visit Yobe until yesterday the President said: “I would have visited Yobe State long ago and even Borno State much much earlier. You can ask Col. Sambo Dasuki, the National Security Adviser (NSA) even before he took over, I said ‘look, we must go to these states’. When he (the NSA) took over, I had no time and he had to rush on a visit not quite one week after he assumed office.
“My visit is to re-assure the people of Yobe that there is no difference between the Federal Government and any other part of the country. There are some kinds of insinuations that President doesn’t want to go to the northeast.
“Following the crisis of Boko Haram, I visited two states outside those incidents that happened in Abuja. When the police headquarters was bombed, I had to go there. When the United Nations (UN) building was bombed, I visited and, of course, the first major attack on a religious centre was when the Catholic Church was bombed in Niger State and the kind of signals I had could have provoked actions. I had to rush down and declare that emergency. And, of course, when there was one major attack in Kano, I also visited.
“But somehow I have not visited Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe states I have not and sometimes people are insinuating that the president doesn’t like these states, no.
“My coming is to reassure the people of Yobe State that I don’t discriminate between the sections of the country. I took an oath of office to treat Nigeria as one and what affects Yobe State affects the rest of the country.
“The issues of terror, if you listen to my public statement, even outside Nigeria, I normally emphasise that when there is a terrorist situation in any part of the world, it affects the whole world because the victims may not necessary come from that part of the world. If one state or one community is under a terrorist attack, it affects the rest. Look at what happened in Bauchi State where some expatriate workers of Setraco were kidnapped. I get calls from the presidents of the countries where these people come from.
“There is no way a president, whether he is Jonathan or anybody, will say he will not care about what happens in any part of the federation. We must care; it has nothing to do with politics. I really want to use this opportunity to reassure my brothers and sister in Yobe State that because I had not visited Yobe does not mean that I am less concerned. I am happy today that we are interacting,” he said.
President Jonathan met with Governor Ibrahim Gaidam and they discussed how to resolve the crisis in the state. The President also met privately with the Emirs and other traditional rulers.
Dr. Jonathan inaugurated the 300 housing units and a library at the Yobe State University named after him. He donated N200million to the school.
The President left Yobe for Borno where he was received by Governor Kashim Shettima.
