'Islamist group are willing to surrender', says Mama Boko Haram

Mama Boko Haram, whose real name is Hajiya Aisha Wakil is a Nigerian woman who has reportedly had close interaction with Boko Haram. She says the group is ready to surrender in their fight against the government.

She expressed in a chat with Punch News that the Islamist sect felt aggrieved about the killing of their members, a reason why they have taken up arms which created an ongoing war between them and the Nigerian military.

According to Wakil, a fervent devotion to prayer can bring about an end to the unrest in the north east which has recorded deaths of innocent people particularly children and their mothers.

Kidnapping is also not exempted from the atrocities that has characterized Boko Haram who abducted 276 schoolgirls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State.

"My understanding of the group is that they are young people who claimed that they were provoked. They said nobody listened to them and that they had to transfer their anger and vent it on innocent people. That is the only thing I can say about them. They were angry.

"When I heard the rumour about their intention to revolt, I called Mohammed Yusuf. He told me that they were betrayed. Up till now, I do not know what the betrayal was all about. He said they were angry because somebody made them angry and they wanted an apology.

"They said the trouble started when security operatives shot their members because they did not wear crash helmets. As if that was not enough, they said some security personnel shot at them during the funeral procession of one of their members killed by police bullets."

"I believe in God and I pray a lot. I believe in prayers. If we pray, these kids are not more powerful than God. I do encourage people to also pray about it.

"There is one adage in Igbo that says if you drag a stick and the stick drags you, you leave the stick and run for your life. They (Federal Government) keep telling me that they have dragged the stick (Boko Haram insurgents) and that the stick has dragged them and it is now for them to leave the stick. But I keep telling them that this is not a stick but human beings and we have to continue to drag them.

"These are Nigerians, our children, our brothers and sons. We cannot just leave them like that, because leaving them like that would create more problems.

I believe it (the insurgency) will end; they (the insurgents) wanted it to end. Anytime I talk to them, they always ask me when the war would end and would also seek to know how it would end," Mama Boko Haram told Punch News in an interview.

She submitted that the warfare will have no positive effect on the issue.

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According to the peace seeker, the ongoing battle has chiefly affected the children, a reason why it must end.

The battle to conquer the Boko Haram insurgents has seen a number of exceptional soldiers who have displayed a dedication to their jobs revealed.

Despite losing many of their colleagues to the war, some have still managed to put up a cheerful mood like an army officer who sent out a Christmas message in December 2017, in a video that went viral.