No amnesty for Boko Haram - Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has replied the advocates of amnesty for members of the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram.
Jonathan said they should perish such a thought.
He said their activities cannot be likened to that of the Niger Delta militants.
Speaking at a Town Hall meeting in Damaturu, Yobe State on Thursday, Jonathan, who is on a working visit to Yobe and Borno States, insisted that government would not grant Boko Haram members amnesty when they have not come out to denounce criminality.
Jonathan declared: “We cannot declare amnesty for Boko Haram because we cannot declare amnesty for ghosts.
“You cannot liken Boko Haram to what happened in the Niger Delta.”
He reminded the audience, made up of the Yobe State Governor , Alhaji Buka Abba Ibrhim; senators; the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur; and other key North East leaders that the leaders of the Niger Delta militants were known, even to those in government.
He added that the leaders of the militants were always willing to come out to discuss their grievances.
Jonathan’s words: “Some of these names you hear: Asari Dokubo, Ateke Tom, when I was a deputy governor, I went to a meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo and I saw Asari and Tom in the Presidential Villa.
“That was the first time I saw them.
“I had never seen them before.
“I did not even know them and I was the deputy governor of Bayelsa State, one of the hotbeds.
“It was in the Villa that I met them first during a meeting with the President.
“What I am saying is that in the Niger Delta case, if you call them, they will come and tell you their grievances rightly or wrongly.
“They will be there to tell you this is what we want, this is why we are doing this.
“But in the case of the Boko Haram, you don’t see anybody who will say he is a Boko Haram member.
“So we cannot declare amnesty.
“For we to declare amnesty, we must be communicating with people.
“We cannot declare amnesty for people that are operating under a veil.
“We can’t even discuss amnesty issue.
“Let us discuss, let them come and tell us their problems and let’s see how we can solve the problem.
“If amnesty will solve the problem, no problem about that.
“We can design how the amnesty will be.”
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, had on Tuesday enjoined the Federal Government to grant amnesty to all manners of armed groups in the country.
Abubakar spoke at a forum of the Central Council of the Jama’atul Nasril Islam in Kaduna.
He argued that granting amnesty “will make any person who takes up arms to be termed as a criminal.
“If amnesty is declared, so many of these young men who are tired of running and hiding, would come out and embrace this amnesty.”