by Rachel Ogbu

Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu has voiced his support for amnesty for members of Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

On Saturday, Ribadu warned that if President Goodluck Jonathan refused to grant amnesty to Boko Haram, the country could fall into another civil war.

He said if President Jonathan didn’t act soon, with the way things were occurring in the country, “Nigerians will lose Nigeria to a civil war.”

“Jonathan was wrong to have said he will not grant amnesty to Boko Haram; he should not fail to protect the people and when people call saying we are tired, we are down; even if it means to dialogue and have a solution to the whole process, he should opt for such.

“You cannot say they are faceless because faceless people do not do things like this. Faceless people cannot be responsible and daily you see them on Facebook. Faceless people cannot be in your custody; ghosts cannot be people that are in the community, people who at a point wanted to dialogue,” Ribadu said.

Former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, recently supported the idea  of an amnesty when he was in Kano to sympathize with the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, over the attack on him and his convoy. “For the innocent ones among them, there must be amnesty. We cannot fight a war in our own country against minor crimes and minor people. We would only end up multiplying these people by trying to use force against our own citizens,” he said.

According to reports, Ribadu who spoke on Liberty FM in Kaduna on Saturday insisted that President Jonathan granted amnesty to the sect for peace to return to the country, adding that a war could be averted “if we come together forgetting about sentiments, about differences and working towards unity and saving the resources of this country because it is only through that we will be able to achieve peace.”

The Punch reports

Ribadu added that the presidential pardon granted former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and others showed that Jonathan was insensitive to the plight of the Nigerian masses.

According to him, it was worrisome for a government that knew nothing about the case to pardon the former governor who was convicted for looting public funds. He argued that the action was a big setback for the fight against corruption in the country.

He said, “The pardon granted Alamieyeseigha and Shettima Bulama by the President is a tragic development. A very unfair action against Nigerians because corruption is our biggest problem and any step taken against the direction of reversing it is a negative development in our own country.

“Our leaders are very insensitive to the ordinary people and very unfair to Nigeria. If you take selfish interest before the interest of the people, personally, as a person who did the work of fighting corruption, they were my own cases and they were extremely very important to me.

“They were the first set of convictions that we recorded and they were significant because they were the first set of cases of convictions in Nigeria since independence. We have never had a governor or a Chief Executive Officer of a bank being convicted for a crime.”

Meanwhile, a coalition of Northern civil society groups, led by Mallam Shehu Sani, also faulted the pardon granted Alamieyeseigha, saying it had made nonsense of the anti-corruption crusade of the Federal Government.

The coalition argued that the pardon granted the late Gen. Shehu Yar’Adua, former Chief of General Staff , Gen. Oladipo Diya and the late Gen.Abdulkareem Adisa was just to give creditability to the exercise.

It said, “What we know very well is that pardon for Alamieyeseigha is unpopular, and President Jonathan has demonstrated over the years to be rewarding corruption and aiding and abetting it.”