Aisha Wakil, better known as ‘Mama Boko Haram’, says Boko Haram
members yearn to quit their insurgent activities.
Wakil
said their “hearts bleed because of what they are doing” and “they need peace”.
In an interview with Punch, Wakil said the recent abduction
of 110 schoolgirls from Government Girls Science and Technology College, Yobe,
was a stunt by the sect to show that it is still around, contrary to the army’s
claim.
Wakil
said there was a need to engage Boko Haram in dialogue, adding that she will
never cut her ties with the insurgent group.
“These
children, they have listening ears, so they listen. They hear everything and
they have hearts. Their hearts bleed because of what they are doing. They want
to stop, honestly, they want to stop,” Wakil said.
“You
know, so far there has been no serious move going on for them to come out so
they have to make some noise. It is just like when a man needs his wife and the
wife is not forthcoming, he starts rejecting food…but I know that deep down in
Habib, Nur and their group, they need peace.
“They
are destroying properties and human lives. They are doing all that and we
should now keep quiet and allow them to go on? My voice may not reach all but
this my voice has got to the leader and they listen. If everybody now keeps
quiet, what will be the result? It will be complete chaos. Oh, no, I even
encourage more people to come out and talk – keep talking.
In a recent interview, Wakil had described one of
the insurgents, Habib, as her son. She identified the said Habib to be “the
son of Mohammed Yusuf. So that was why I called him my son”.
Wakil
said Habib listens to her because he is “mild and calm”.
She
said: “Habib, from what I heard, is so angry about the way his father was
killed and he is also somebody that one can talk to because he has a soft heart
like his father. If the father were alive today, this thing would not have
happened.
Wakil
was a member of the Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges
Committee in the northern region. The committee was set up by former President
Goodluck Jonathan.
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