An alleged spokesperson for the Nigerian radical Islamist group Boko Haram has said that the group is willing to enter into peace talks, on the premise that they are held in Saudi Arabia and headed by Muhamed Buhari, a Muslim colonel who ruled Nigeria for 20 months after seizing power in 1984.
The spokesperson, Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, claiming to be representing Boko Haram’s leader said:
"We are not actually challenging the state, as people are saying, but the security [forces] who are killing our members, children and wives. If this government is sincere, [attacks] will come to an end.”
A senior security source claimed that the demands were being treated as politically genuine, saying:
"The fact of asking Buhari to be involved is telling. Like the average northerner, the bulk of Boko Haram members believe Buhari is a stalwart Muslim who will not be swayed into betrayal by politics.”
Read the full report on the Guardian here.