I didn't negotiate with Boko Haram - Ex-president says

dimeji akinloye

January 29, 2016 6:14 PM

Abati had buttressed Tukur’s statement by saying he was optimistic that the talks would produce “concrete and positive”.

Goodluck Jonathan, Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed report that he attempted to broker a deal with terror group, Boko Haram.

Jonathan made the clarification in an interview with a news website, Quartz, in Geneva, Switzerland. He said his administration did not set up any negotiating team.

“I did not negotiate with Boko Haram. The government never set up a team,” Quartz quoted him as saying.

Officials of the immediate past administration, including Jonathan's principal private secretary, Hassan Tukur, and his spokesman Reuben Abati, had told the Voice of America that the government was meeting with Danladi Ahmadu, Boko Haram’s representative, and high-level officials from Chad and Cameroon to negotiate with the terrorists.

READ: The Economist calls Goodluck Jonathan an “ineffectual buffoon”

But Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, refuted the claims by Jonathan's government in a video the sect released weeks after launching several attacks in the northeast.

“We have not made ceasefire with anyone. We did not negotiate with anyone… It’s a lie. It’s a lie. We will not negotiate. What is our business with negotiation? Allah said we should not,” Shekau had said.

Also reacting to allegations of corruption during his administration, saying "the truth will come out one day".

“Sometimes people think that I was president since the independence (of Nigeria) and not for five years. Sometimes they say that we have lost over $150 billion in funds in the five years that I was president,” he said.

The ex-president yesterday, Jan. 28 had said that President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is still fighting Boko Haram with the arms procured by his government.

dimeji akinloye