Senator Shehu Sani backs FG to negotiate with Boko Haram

The senator representing Kaduna Central at the Uper Chamber of the National Assembly, Shehu Sani has opined that peace talk with the Boko Haram extremists would surely bring insurgency to abrupt end in the country.
According to him, Federal Government’s plan to negotiate with the violent group was the way forward for Nigeria.
Speaking on Thursday in Abuja, the senator enjoined the government to ensure that the negotiating team was made up of people capable of bringing the insurgents to the negotiating table.
“We need credible personalities who have some level of recognition or respect with the insurgents and a second team to oversee the terms of agreement to their full implementation.
“These are very much necessary to achieve success and put an end to insurgency.
“But we must make it very clear that we will not in anyway surrender our sovereignty to any terror group.
“We will not concede any territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to any insurgent group, and we will not in any way jettison our secular principles as a democratic state.
“If these caveats are clear then we are all out for negotiations,” he said.
He further added that dialogue and what he described as the ‘peoples’ war’ were effective strategies needed to successfully win the war against insurgency.
He said, “Negotiations require the government to be ready to make concessions by releasing some of the insurgents in return for the Chibok girls and other persons kept in captivity.
“The last administration was not ready to release some of the insurgents in its custody in exchange for the Chibok girls.
“We even reached a point of exchange when at the last point the government changed its mind based on security report received from security agencies.”
“What I am saying is, you cannot achieve anything when negotiating if you are not ready to make concession.
“We should work on that to at least get the Chibok girls out of harm’s way and out of danger,” he advised.