Buhari tells ICC boss that Boko Haram is a criminal gang with no religious or ethnic case

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has told the chief prosecutor of International Criminal Court (ICC) that the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria is sheer criminal behaviour that has nothing to do with religion or ethnicity.

Since 2009, Boko Haram insurgents have been fighting a war with the Nigerian state, seeking to establish an Islamic theocracy in the northeast of the country. Over the years, Boko Haram has splintered into several groups, with Islamic State of West Africa (Iswap) now one of the main operators across northwest Nigeria.

Yesterday, the ICC president Karin Khan paid a visit to President Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja where the two men discussed the Boko Haram insurgency. At the meeting, President Buhari told Mr Khan that the Boko Haram insurgency has no religious nor ethnic underpinnings and that with adequate education, a majority of Nigerians will get to know the truth.

He added that with concerted public enlightenment, it had become clear to Nigerians that Boko Haram was a perversion of religion rather than an Islamic ideology. President Buhari said: “God is justice. You can’t kill innocent people and shout Allah Akbar. It’s either you don’t know that God at all or you are simply being stupid.

“To say that Western education is unacceptable is very fraudulent. That is why we are fighting them and educating the people and we are succeeding a lot.

“We came to office when things were very bad but we are educating the people. Education is fundamental. Religion and ethnicity are out of it. Some people have just made it a lifestyle to cause confusion, destruction and death.”

Mr Khan added  that extremism was like cancer which spreads and can also recede. He added that what Boko Haram does in collaboration with Iswap is perversion of religion but said the ICC believes in complementarity which promotes collaboration as against confrontation.