Nigerian Islamist sect rejects amnesty offer

Reuters

9 May 2011

Nigerian Islamist sect rejects amnesty offer

* Governor-elect offered group amnesty

* Sect behind almost daily killings

* Evidence of links to north African wing of al Qaeda

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, May 9 (Reuters) - A radical Islamist sect in remote northeastern Nigeria, blamed for almost daily killings and attacks, on Monday rejected an offer of an amnesty.

Kashim Shettima, governor-elect of Borno state, made the amnesty offer to the Boko Haram sect shortly after winning April elections to try to end months of attacks on symbols of authority including politicians and police officers.

"We reject any offer of dialogue or so-called amnesty from Kashim Shettima for two reasons," a spokesman for the group said in a statement broadcast on the BBC Hausa service, a local language radio station in northern Nigeria.

"First we do not believe in the Nigerian constitution and secondly we do not believe in democracy but only in the laws of Allah," the spokesman said, speaking in Hausa.