Boko Haram: Committee ready to submit report

 

The Presidential Committee on Peace and Resolution of Conflict in the Northeast will submit its report to the President anytime from next week.

The Chairman of the committee and Special Duties Minister, Kabiru Taminu, stated this on Tuesday while briefing the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the activities of his ministry.

Tanimu said the committee had completed 99 percent of its assignment, assuring that the remaining one percent would be concluded this week, after which a report would be submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan.

The minister however could not answer a reporter’s question on the whereabouts of the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau.

He said: “I think I should also ask you where is Shekau. Now with all sense of responsibility, we have been directed by Mr. President to identify key members of the sect and engage them in dialogue.

“Mr. President did not ask us to look for Shekau and engage him in dialogue. And it is important for Nigerians to appreciate that in matters of this nature, you don’t just wake up one day even as a dialogue committee established by government and say you are discussing with the highest leadership of the insurgents.

“Usually what happened is that we have been able to establish confidence because it is necessary. Initially, they deployed lower rank of their membership to us, like water testing mechanism.

“They go back without any molestation. Then at the next meeting, they would deploy a higher set of members. And this is how it has been going to the level where we now. We have started to engage key members of the insurgents.

“But for us, it does not have to be Shekau. The committee cannot determine for them who should represent them. As far as we know, these are genuine members of the organisation. We deal with them and we have several ways of determining whether they are genuine members or not.

“In the course of this assignment, we have seen some people who are fake members of the insurgency groups that came for the purpose of getting money.

“But I want to assure that we have been talking to genuine members of the insurgency and these are members that are key as far as peaceful resolution of this matter is concerned.”

Tanimu said the committee had laid solid foundation for sustainable peace in the country.