Leader of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lid Da’awati wal Jihad, Ibrahim Shekau, yesterday released an audio clip in which he dismissed the reported moves by the Federal Government to consider granting amnesty to the sect.
In the 30-minute recording, Shekau, who spoke in Hausa, Arabic and English, said it was the government that should be seeking for amnesty of his group, which is also known as Boko Haram, and not the other way round.
But he said even though the sect is the one wronged and the one that should be asked for amnesty it, it was not ready to grant any pardon to the government.
“We are surprise that today it is the Federal Government saying it will grant us amnesty. Oh God, is it we who will grant you amnesty or you are the one to grant us amnesty?
“What have we done? If there is room for forgiveness, we are not going to do it until God give us permission to do it. Have you forgotten your sin, have you forgotten what you have done to us in Plateau the state you called Jos,” he said.
Shekau was reacting to the reported setting up of a committee last week by the National Security and Defence Council to consider the possibility of granting amnesty to Boko Haram.
The committee is due to present its report to the council next week.
Government’s moves came in the wake of widespread calls for amnesty to the sect, coming after Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar urged President Jonathan to consider making a declaration to that effect when he visited Maiduguri last month.
“We emerge to avenge killings of our Muslim brothers and the destruction of our religion. Was not in Plateau we saw people cannibalising our brothers?”
