Despite Boko Haram’s refusal to accept amnesty that the President is planning to offer, a Niger Delta activist Anniko Briggs has urged the government to still listen to what members of the fundamentalist sect are saying.
While speaking on Channels Television’s Breakfast Show Sunrise Daily, Mrs Briggs noted that Boko Haram has never demanded for food, adding that “it’s politicians that are saying the sect are complaining of poverty. They have never spoken of injustice from the Niger Delta or federal government against them.”
Briggs mentioned that what they are saying is that their leader was killed and they want justice for their leader, “I don’t see anything wrong in those claims as long as I and my people are not forced to become Islam and we maintain our Christianity.”
She appealed to the sect members, saying they have a right to make their point known and have a right to make a claim but not by killing innocent Nigerians or by blowing up churches.
Briggs also referred to the recent killing of police officers by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), saying that the MEND threat has become parallel to what Boko Haram is doing.
“If it is a means for them to jump back, I am not surprised and Nigerians won’t be surprised”.
She also mentioned that the state government or federal government should be able to take care of people that have been affected by the Boko Haram attacks especially the orphans, widows and widowers.
“What is the government giving amnesty for, when we don’t have a data of people lives that have been lost?” She asked.
Source: http://www.channelstv.com/home/2013/04/16/govt-needs-to-listen-to-what-boko-haram-is-saying-anniko-briggs
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