Boko Haram: Northern group carpets Oritsejiafor over dialogue

MARCH 29, 2012 BY AGENCY REPORTER 

Umbrella body of Muslims in the North, the Jama’atul Nasril Islam on Wednesday in Kaduna faulted the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejiafor, over comments credited to him on the failed dialogue between the Federal Government and Boko Haram.

The CAN President last week kicked against any form of dialogue between the government and the sect believed to be responsible for the series of violence in the North.

Oritsejiafor said after delivering a sermon at the 46th convention of the United Church of Christ in Nigeria Kaduna that for the continued corporate existence of the country, the government should no longer condone any group threatening the security of lives and property of Nigerians.

“I don’t think any sensible government, whether the President is a Muslim or a Christian, will want to sit down and discuss such thing because it is the greatest instrument of disunity that this country will ever experience,” he was quoted as saying.

However, the JNI on Wednesday rejected Oritsejiafor’s position on the government engaging Boko Haram in a dialogue.

In a statement, the JNI spokesman and acting Administrative Secretary, Mr. Umar Zaria, lamented that the CAN President could make such comments.

The statement reads in part, “The JNI does not know what the President of CAN intends to achieve by saying that he is against the Federal Government talking with Boko Haram.

“Whatever his reason might be, it should be made public for it takes a masquerade to know another. For indeed, after the Miya Barkatai foiled attempt to bomb a Church in Bauchi State, aren’t we been witnessing the return of peace and security. Is he not interested?

“In the light of which I strongly disagree with his assertions, particularly at a time that tension is gradually going down over security upheavals. May I at this juncture call on Oritsejiafor to tell the world the 26 different groups said to be the Boko Haram? Also it is imperative that the CAN President reveals to the nation his motives of not wanting the Federal Government to dialogue with Boko Haram. It seems he prefers the state of violence and anarchy the nation is going through.”

SOURCE: The Punch, 29 March 2012. http://www.punchng.com/