Principal Private Secretary to President Jonathan, Ambassador Hassan Tukur, has said there was no basis to the allegation that he sabotaged talks between the government and Boko Haram.Responding to an earlier statement by mediator in the botched dialogue, Dr. Ibrahim Datti Ahmad, Tukur told the VOA Hausa radio yesterday that he did not leak any information to the media as claimed by Ahmad.On Tuesday, Ahmad told the same radio station that Tukur sabotaged the talks back in March by leaking information to newspapers after President Jonathan delegated him to pursue the dialogue process.'What Dr. Datti said was not true,' Tukur said. 'When they came, I asked them to bring the list of their contacts in the Ahlussunnah i.e. Boko Haram, and they should tell us the ways and how to sit down for the dialogue with them. Since they left, they never came back.'They never told us their Boko Haram contacts, nor the way to dialogue with them. He just appeared in the papers saying a government official revealed that the dialogue plans with Boko Haram. Nobody appointed Datti Ahmad, he brought himself.'Tukru added: 'You can only enter into a dialogue with those you know but he did not bring those people. He said because the story leaked he withdrew, does that make sense' In fact if he truly wanted to intervene, he should be happy the information was out.'He said he was not even in the country when Ahmad and two other people met with President Jonathan, and he was later brought into the process by the president.'When four of them met with the president, I was not in the country. On my return the president told me that he would be sending the group to come and meet with me,' Tukur said.'In this dire situation that this country is facing I think it is incumbent on each and every Nigerian, especially of northern descent to make concerted efforts in quelling any problem in this country.'But this position which Datti Ahmed decided to tow, to accuse some phantom government official of being the one against his move to negotiate with Boko Haram, is ill advised and unIslamic.'He added that the president and himself really wanted to bring an end to the crisis 'but people should not see this as an opportunity to take advantage of the plight of the Nigerian people.'Asked by the VOA on what the government would do to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency, Tukur said, 'I can assure you that if there is one thing that this government wants to resolve as quickly as possible, it is this problem. We are both northerners, I went to school both in Maiduguri and Kano. In the last few months I was in Maiduguri more than thrice and I have been to Kano as well; I know what these places are going through. I know what our brothers, Muslims and Christians, are going through because of the unrest. Schools are shut down, healthcare is not available and sources of commerce are cut; there are no fresh investments and nothing works. Why would it therefore be a government official or a northerner or even a Muslim who would want to see this destruction continue''Besides, the Ahlis Sunna group are Muslims like us, so why would we not sit together on the negotiation table' Didn't our Prophet (SAW) sat in negotiation' We are Muslims and we know that the Prophet sat side-by-side with Jews in Medina, so why wouldn't we' So if anyone says he withdrew his effort to negotiate peace for Nigeria on this lame excuse that it was disclosed to the media, then I think there is more to it than what we are hearing.
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