We're Stripping Boko Haram Of All Religious Pretensions – Buhari

SAN FRANCISCO, December 15, (THEWILL) – President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday in Abuja that he expected religious leaders in Nigeria to do more to support the Federal Government’s efforts to strip Boko Haram of all of its religious pretensions and fully expose the group as vicious terrorists, devoid of any moral or philosophical direction.

Speaking at an audience with Ecuador’s new Ambassador to Nigeria, Leopoldo Rovayo Verdesoto, President Buhari, in a statement by his special adviser on media and publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, noted that a lot had already been done to properly expose Boko Haram as a ruthless, destructive and misguided terrorist group.

“What we have succeeded in doing is to separate terrorism from religion. The initial attraction for recruitments was religion. But now, people cannot relate with their relevance anymore and they are only associated with the destruction of lives and properties.

“If your life does not mean anything to you, other peoples’ lives will not mean anything to you as well. And people are beginning to see that Boko Haram is just about destruction and nothing else,” the President was quoted as saying.

President Buhari also told the new ambassador, who was at the Presidential Villa to present his letter of credence, that his administration will continue to prioritise diversification and other measures to help the Nigerian economy withstand the shock of falling crude oil prices.

The President also received the letters of credence of the new Ambassador of Zambia, Dr. Solomon Jere and the new Ambassador of Colombia, Ms. Claudia Turbay Quintereo.

He wished all the three new ambassadors successful tenure in Nigeria.