SERAP,Others Advise FG to Clarify Position on Amnesty for Boko Haram

Some prominent lawyers have advised the Federal Government to clarify its position on the granting of amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect. The lawyers gave the advice on Friday in separate interviews with newsmen in Lagos. Mr Onyekachi Ubani, a former Chairman of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, said the government should map out an effective strategy to tackle the insurgency. "The government's position is not clarified. They are talking about amnesty and at the same time saying that they will not negotiate with the Boko Haram insurgents," Ubani said. He noted that the government could negotiate with the sect for the release of the abducted students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno. According to him, such negotiations should not translate to general amnesty for members of the sect, who have committed several atrocities against the Nigerian people. Speaking in the same vein, Mr Jiti Ogunye, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, said the offer for amnesty was an indication that the insurgency was not being tackled with a well thought-out plan. Ogunye said the government should resist the pressure of granting amnesty to Boko Haram, in order to secure the release of the kidnapped girls. "The government can isolate the issue of negotiating the release of these girls but they cannot offer a general amnesty to murderers and killers. If you offer amnesty to a band of terrorists who have not really shown remorse for their actions, then you have not achieved anything," he said. On his part, Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni, Executive Director, Socio- Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a civil rights group, said the details of the amnesty programme should be made public. Mumuni said,"If you propose amnesty to a group of people, it means that the people must have admitted that they committed an offence and are in the wrong." According to him, the members of the sect have not acknowledged any act of wrong doing warranting their consideration for amnesty. However, Mr Chino Obiagwu, National Coordinator of Legal Defence Assistance Project, a human rights group, described the proposal as `a welcome development‘. "We have always said that the fight against terrorism cannot be through military action alone and that there is need to reach out to repentant militants to lay down their arms and embrace peace. The amnesty may not be total but it can be a reduction in sentence for them, which will act as a way of bringing this insurgency to an end," Obiagwu added. President Goodluck Jonathan had during his May 29 Democracy Day address declared total war on Boko Haram. However, the Minister of Youth Development, Mr Boni Haruna, had on the same day said the government was proposing amnesty for members of the sect.