Following the reaction of the President, Goodluck Jonathan on the request of northern elders to grant Amnesty to Boko Haram, Borno Elders and other leaders in the state have condemned the President’s position.
DailyPost report says the elders had confronted Jonathan during a town hall meeting that his call that the Islamist Boko Haram come out for dialogue was inappropriate.
But while reacting to their calls, President Jonathan who replied them in the most shocking way warned that, people and politicians should stop playing to the gallery on the security situation that had bedevilled the state for years now.
The President disclosed while speaking with the governor of Yobe state on the security situation. He observed that, the crises are ebbing by the day and in almost all parts of north-eastern states, except in Borno state, and as such, he as the president of Nigeria was not ready to celebrate the death of any security personnel killed in any part of the country.
He said if the Borno elders will not come out to condemn the activities of the sect, the people will continue to live under their terror and as a government, they have the responsibility to ensure the protection of lives and property of innocent citizens.
He challenged the Borno elders and others who are calling for the removal of JTF and at the same calling for amnesty for the sects. He said the elders of Borno state would be held responsible if troops are withdrawn and anarchy sets in.
He reiterated that despite the vision and the dreams of the government for the good people of Borno state, those visions and dreams cannot be achieved without peace, adding that people should work towards ensuring that peace reigns in the state.
President Jonathan was particular about the statement made by the former VC, University of Maiduguri, Professor Nur Alkali when he said, “who want to send bunkers or who want to send soldiers on the streets of Borno state? We need money for development and if the circumstances that brought soldiers are no more there; that day the soldiers would leave. They were not in Borno state 2001, 2002, 2003 and upto 2005 until this problem started in 2009.
Speaking further, Jonathan said “Let me be very frank, because the analogy that when one soldier is killed, a score of people would be killed by soldiers are not correct because we have always admonished that and we have always told the soldiers to conduct themselves within their professional ethics. And let me assure you that government would not sit down quietly for anybody to take weapon and start killing people in the name of insurgence. I don’t want to hear that one soldier is killed anywhere either in the Niger Delta or in Borno state or any part of this country, I will not preside over this country as President and allow that to happened or I will not take it lightly with anyone.
“These soldiers leave their families and sleep in the bush, and on the streets just so that you and I could have some sleep; and I would not want to hear that one of them is killed. I have given directive to that effect. We have warned the soldiers to conduct themselves, not to kill innocent civilians; but I will not celebrate the death of one soldier, and I repeat, I will not celebrate the death of one soldier.” Jonathan had asserted.
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