Boko Haram perversion of religion — Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday observed that Boko Haram is a perversion of religion, rather than Islamic ideology. 

He said the insurgency has neither religious nor ethnic underpinning, noting that with adequate education, majority of Nigerians now know the truth.

President Buhari said this while receiving Karin Ahmad Khan, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The President added that with concerted public enlightenment, it had become clear to the people that the insurgents had no religious ideology.

Said President Buhari: “God is justice. You can’t kill innocent people, and shout; Allah Akbar (God is great). It’s either you don’t know that God at all, or you are simply being stupid. 

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“To say Western education is unacceptable (Haram) is very fraudulent. That is why we are fighting them, and educating the people. And we are succeeding a lot. We came to office when things were very bad, but we are educating the people. Education is fundamental. Religion and ethnicity are out of it. Some people have just made it a lifestyle to cause confusion, destruction and death.” 

The ICC Prosecutor said extremism was like cancer, which spreads and can also recede, noting that what Boko Haram does in collaboration with Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP), “is perversion of religion.” 

He said the ICC believes in complementarity, “which promotes collaboration, as against confrontation,” counselling Nigeria in concert with other Sahel/Lake Chad basin countries to get the United Nations Security Council to refer the atrocities committed by the terrorist groups operating in the region to ICC, for investigation and subsequent trial.