TheCable

Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano state, wants the federal government to apply caution in ongoing attempts to examine the possibility of striking a peace deal with Boko Haram.

Referring to the mistakes made by the past administration in that regard, Ganduje warned that the sect has many factions.

He also urged local communities to be vigilant and make intelligence information available to the security agencies.

He was speaking with state house correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa Abuja on Friday.

“I hope when we negotiate with them, we are negotiating with the correct people,” he said.

“Experience has shown that they have so many factions and if we are not lucky, we may be dealing with the wrong faction.

“I believe the security agencies should have intelligence information to know what type of people we are dealing with.

“But most importantly is community policing. Communities should be interested in the whole security situation because a lot of information can be received from the local people which will assist the security agencies. People should be alert about security situation.”

Ganduje expressed optimism that the Sallah celebration would be peaceful due to the milestones achieved by the government in the war against insurgency in the country, saying: “Sallah is a few days to come and we pray to almighty Allah so we have a successful celebration,” he said.

“Already we are expecting a peaceful Sallah because the Nigerian president has done a lot in controlling insurgency in the north eastern part of the country which normally flows to places like Kano especially during sallah celebration.”

The Nigerian government famously announced a ceasefire with Boko Haram on October 17, 2014, but the sect attacked two villages in Borno within 24 hours.

Leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau then released a video two weeks later, dismissing the ceasefire claim.

Shekau would follow that up with another video in which he threatened to kill Danladi Ahmadu who claimed to be speaking on behalf of the group during the phantom ceasefire deal.