Abeokuta – Former military Head of State retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday gave a rare commendation to the Federal Government for setting up a committee on the fundamentalist Boko Haram sect.

President Goodluck Jonathan

The Federal Government on April 4, said that a committee would be set up to look into the possibility of granting amnesty to members of Boko Haram, who had been waging a bloody campaign against the country in recent years.

Buhari gave the commendation while addressing newsmen in Abeokuta.

The former head of state who was in Ogun to commiserate with Mrs Hannah Awolowo on the death of her son, Oluwole Awolowo, described the amnesty gesture for Boko Haram as a welcome development.

“It is good that the Federal Government has set up a committee on amnesty. I have not seen the terms of reference but it is a good step in the right direction.”

He described the decision as a bold step capable of restoring peace to troubled areas of the country, adding, “whatever that will bring peace to us as a people, we should do”.

Buhari who noted that there had been precedence on the issue of amnesty, recalled that the former Niger Delta militant group once benefitted from a similar gesture.

“This is not the first time amnesty will be granted to a violent group. You remember it was granted to the militant group in the Niger Delta during the time of late President Musa Yar’adua.”

Buhari, a former presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 general elections, was accompanied by Mr Tunde Bakare, his running mate during the elections.

The CPC chieftain, who had earlier addressed party supporters, said he was in the state to condole with the Awolowo’s over the death of Oluwole.

He said that he would also go to Ekiti, to commiserate with the government over the death of Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka, the Deputy Governor of the state who died on April 6. (NAN)