The governor of Kano state sought to defend himself Friday over Islamist group Boko Haram’s claims that its members had been arrested on false charges, a reason the militants have given for attacks that killed 185.
Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso also signaled he was open to dialogue with Boko Haram, which claimed coordinated bombings and shootings on January 20 mainly targeting police stations in Kano, the capital of the state.
Suspected Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a letter he allegedly sent to the state government in December that some of his group’s members had been arrested on the pretext that they were thieves and armed robbers.
The letter said that “we are therefore compelled… to inform Kano residents of this development so that when we launch attacks in the city, as we have been doing in Maiduguri, they should not blame us.”
Kwankwaso said the state had never ordered such arrests.
“I saw the open letter, as many people did,” the governor told reporters. “We, as Kano’s state government, have never arrested anyone based on any sectarian offences or anything related to that.”
He said the state government “called on all security agencies and relevant authorities in Nigeria, that if there are some people innocently arrested, they should be released”.
“I also assured that we never ordered anybody’s arrest and we don’t have personnel to make arrests at state level,” he said, with the police force being a federal department in Nigeria.
On the potential for dialogue, Kwankwaso said “as everyone knows, there is a group of people who think they have some grievances. We as a government are always ready to sit down with people who have some grievances or demands.”
He added that “if it is something beyond the powers of the state government or the people of this state, we are willing to provide the platform to sit down with leaders at the federal level to have a solution.”
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for Friday’s attacks, and a message on YouTube said to be the voice of Shekau said they were over the arrests and torture of the group’s members.
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