Federal Government Plan To Dialogue With Boko Haram Right Step – Williams

A former Chairman of the Nigerian chapter of Transparency International, Maj.-Gen. Ishola Williams (retd), has thrown his weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to negotiate with genuine leaders of the violent terrorist sect, Boko Haram.

The former army officer hailed the decision as the right step in the right direction in light of the state of insurgency in the country.
President Buhari had in an interview with the Cable News Network during his four-day official visit to the U.S disclosed that his government was ready to dialogue with the terror group, if the talks would lead to the release of the schoolgirls kidnapped over a year ago in Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
Buhari, however, noted that caution must be the watchword to avoid the pitfalls of the former administration where talks were held with impostors posing as genuine leaders of the terror group.

Reacting to the president’s stance to dialogue, Williams called for the establishment of a team by the authorities to gather a lot of intelligence in order to dialogue with the genuine leaders of the sect.

He said, “It (negotiation) is the proper thing to do but there is the need for a lot of intelligence work to be able to identify who the genuine leaders of Boko Haram are. Nobody knows them.
“We heard that the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, was killed but we do not know who replaces him. The sect denied that he was not killed.

“There is a need to collaborate with international agencies to hold proper negotiation before the negotiation. I support negotiation with credible members of the sect if they are identified”.
The former T.I chief added that the negotiation was necessary considering the lives of the young schoolgirls involved in the matter.