Lets Try Begging | Stop bloodshed, Borno elders beg Boko Haram

Elders in Borno under the auspices of Borno Elders Forum (BEF) have appealed to the Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnah Lid da’waati Wal Jihad to ponder on the recent happenings in the state and end the incessant attacks, noting that innocent residents have been subjected to harrowing and dehumanising conditions.

Led by the former  Representative to the United Nations General Assembly and first Minister of Petroleum, Shettima Ali Monguno, the elders stated that the call on the sect to stop the killings became necessary because the people could no longer engage in any meaningful engagement since the security situation took a downturn.

“The people cannot perform the five obligatory prayers in congregation in mosques near their houses or perform Friday prayers in several mosques in the city. We no longer practice our religion as desired. Our markets and other places of business are no more. Many people can no longer access schools. All the things we held dear as a people; our tradition, culture and pride are gone. Even going through the current farming season has become increasingly difficult and people can no longer move from one plce to another,” Monguno said.   He said thousands of lives had been lost, many maimed or traumatised while several others had been displaced due to the sect’s insurgence and the soldiers counter-attacks in the state.  “The people totally became desolate as refugees in their own land,” he said, appealing to the sect members whom he described as “our grandchildren, sons and brothers,” to consider the suffering of their people by laying down their arms, return home and re-integrate themselves and help salvage the “destroyed society.” 

Ali Monguno also appealed to the Federal Government to release all detainees found to be innocent among many members of the sect currently in various custodies of the security agencies in the country. They said a process of dialogue and true reconciliation should be embarked on, urging government to go extra mile to be magnanimous in embracing dialogue in the interest of the masses that directly bear the brunt of the three-year-old crisis.

He called for removal of roadblocks in Maiduguri and other parts of the state to ease movement of the people to their places of worship, businesses and economic engagements, stressing that the people of Borno were yearning to have peace having been traumatised for too long. He equally advocated for partial reduction of soldiers and security operatives on the streets of Maiduguri.

Ali Monguno called on President Goodluck Jonathan to listen to wise counsel and pursue dialogue as the only solution to the problem. “We elected the president, we gave him our mandate and he is the president of everybody in this country and he should listen to our plight. People have been confined to their homes, lives have been miserable to our people. I do not know anywhere in the world where people are compelled to retire to their houses as early as 6pm for about six months now. Our people can’t even do their daily businesses again.

“Mr President, listen to us. We need peace, we want peace and we elected you because we wanted trusted and responsible leader. We want the president to handle this matter the same way the Fedral Government handle the Niger Delta so that we can have peace. Our people have suffered enough,” he stressed.