The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has expressed concerns over reports that the Federal Government was engaging in a secret programme tagged, Suhlu, positioned to rehabilitate top commanders of Boko Haram insurgents and the Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) and provide them with a means of livelihood.
According to the group, the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari should unveil the identities of Boko Haram sponsors, especially the 400 Bureau De Change (BDC) operators that were identified by the authorities of the United Arab Emirates.
These demands were made in a communique issued after the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the MBF, held in Akwanga, Nasarawa State at the weekend, to dialogue on the many issues affecting the region and Nigeria as a whole.
Goldennewsng.com earlier published that a report by a United Nations (UN) independent news organisation, The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News), had uncovered the secret Sulhu programme by the Nigerian government.
According to the UN organisation, Sulhu grew out of the behind-the-scenes attempts to free the more than 270 Chibok schoolgirls seized by Boko Haram in 2014, and is applauded by its supporters as smart warfare – a means to remove the senior jihadists from the battlefield more effectively than the orthodox military campaign.
But in the communique signed by its President, Dr Pogu Bitrus, the group kicked against any form of amnesty for insurgents and other terrorist groups, who they said “have their hands dripping with blood”.
