Vanguard
8 September 2011
Sokoto – Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, yesterday, said that sponsors of Islamic sect, Boko Haram, must be exposed if the fight against terrorism must succeed, even as he lamented the pervasive corruption in the country.
Sultan spoke when the Papal Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Augustine Kasojja, accompanied by Anthony Cardinal Okojie, Archbishop of Lagos; Archbishops of Ibadan, Kaduna, Jos and Owerri, as well as 20 other bishops on a courtesy visit to his palace in Sokoto, yesterday.
The bishops are in the state for the installation of Rt. Reverend Monsignor Matthew Hassan Kukah as the new Catholic Bishop of Sokoto today.
His position is coming against the backdrop of the revelations by Wikileaks that he reportedly facilitated the release of some of the Boko Haram members arrested over alleged terrorist activities in the past to enable them escape justice.
The US diplomatic cable with reference 08ABUJA538, released by Wikileaks was reportedly sent by the former American Ambassador to Nigeria
Release of Boko Haram members
The cable revealed that the State Security Service, SSS and some Northern traditional leaders, including the Sultan reached an understanding to release some Boko Haram suspects secretly to ensure they were not tried in law courts for their alleged offences of terrorism in the country.
The aim for the release of the suspects to a carefully selected group of traditional rulers and Imams shortly after their arrest was to ‘’de-radicalise and reform’’ them under the so-called ‘’Perception Management’’ which would have reformed the terrorism suspects and promoted the notion that religious extremists in the North had no foreign affiliations.
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