A former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, on Tuesday urged members of the Boko Haram sect to embrace dialogue.
Mr.
Abubakar gave the charge when the Presidential Committee on Dialogue
and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenge in the North visited him
at his residence in Minna.
He appealed to the sect members to meet the committee to discuss their grievances, saying that dialogue was the only out.
“I
implore Nigerians to pray for the sect members to have a change of
heart and accept dialogue to discuss their grievances and seek peace.
“If
you go to the North, especially Borno and Yobe where this is happening,
you will weep. Women have turned widows and children orphans, while
other people are separated from one another.
“In
the name of their conscience, in the name of Allah which they profess,
they should lay down their arms and embrace dialogue to end the
violence.
“Violence doesn’t solve problem, you must come to the table, without doing that your grievances are meaningless.”
Mr.
Abubakar also advised the committee to thread with caution, saying,
“The eyes of the whole world are on you to see what you can do and what
you can come up with”.
He
described the carnage going on in the North as senseless, appealing to
the committee not to allow the Federal Government to punish sect members
who turned themselves in.
“The
unemployed, but educated youths are a threat to peace in any society,
while government cannot employ everybody, we must create the right
environment for them to thrive,” Mr. Abubakar stated.
The
Chairman of the committee, Kabiru Turaki, urged Mr. Abubakar to
persuade leaders of the sect to come out and dialogue with the committee
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