Disband Boko Haram C’ttee Now, Afenifere Tells Jonathan •Seeks Probe Of Turaki Over Purported Cease Fire Deal

Pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere yesterday called for the immediate disbandment of the Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu Turaki-led Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North, saying recent events had over taken the usefulness of the committee.

Afenifere also called for an urgent probe of Turaki, who is also the Minister of Special Duties, to ascertain where his hoax of a cease fire came from.

Making this known in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere recalled that the chairman of the committee had some weeks ago announced to the country that he had secured a cease fire agreement with Boko Haram in the spirit of Ramadan.

“But he was later disowned by Boko Haram and the latest dangerous assaults being launched by the group clearly suggest that Alhaji Tanimu may be working for a fifth column.”

Afenifere expressed concerns over renewed violent campaigns by the radical Islamist sect which claimed scores of lives in separate attacks in Borno and Kano States within 48-hours.

“The brutal killings of innocent citizens by the dreaded group just as the Army paraded 42 suspected members of the sect nabbed in Lagos with warning from the Directorates of State Security (DSS) that deadlier attacks are on the way is a signal to the government that it cannot afford to take a pacifist approach as sympathizers of the sect who have infiltrated the administration may be counselling.

“It appears to us in Afenifere that the government is being lured into some false sense of security so that the sect could re-strategize for more devastating attacks. It would be recalled that all manners of leaders and statesmen were piling pressures on the government to enter into dialogue with the terrorists before the state of emergency was declared in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states weeks ago,” the group said.