The letter was signed by Sheik Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulazeez, a man known by local security sources to be a sect member but considered to be a moderate.
If the letter is genuine, it would appear to mark a change of tack for the Islamists that fits ill with a spate of violent episodes, including the bombing of the military church on Sunday. That bombing showed a degree of sophistication not seen from Boko Haram for months.
Nearly 3,000 people have died violent deaths related to the conflict since the sect launched its uprising in 2009, according to a count by Human Rights Watch. Boko Haram has replaced militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta over that time to become the biggest security threat to Africa's top energy producer.
The letter was handed to the national head of the union of journalists, Aba Kakami, who has often received and distributed statements from the sect, usually claiming attacks against high profile targets or warning of them.
Communication with the shadowy Islamists, who are fighting to impose sharia, Islamic law, on Nigeria, has been even more sporadic than normal since the military killed their spokesman Abu Qaqa in September in a gun battle.
Abdulazeez first contacted journalists in Maiduguri earlier this month, setting conditions for peace talks in teleconference and nominating former military ruler and northerner Muhammadu Buhari as a mediator. Buhari has since declined the offer.
"We are by this letter of invitation to our respected elders proving to government that we are not joking with the government, but we are awaiting the response of those concerned," the letter said.
Abdulazeez said he was speaking on behalf of Abubakar Shekau, the sect's leader.
ICC suspects Boko Haram of crimes against humanity
THE HAGUE (AFP) – The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor has a “reasonable basis” to believe Boko Haram Islamists have committed crimes against humanity in Nigeria, her office said Monday.
Nigerian authorities should prosecute acts of murder and persecution attributed to the radical group that have claimed more than 1,200 lives since mid-2009 or the ICC could step in, the prosecutor said in a report seen by AFP.
“There is a reasonable basis to believe that since July 2009, Boko Haram has committed the following acts constituting crimes against humanity,” namely murder and persecution, the report said.
The report also cited a “reasonable basis” to believe that Boko Haram has “launched a widespread and systematic attack that has resulted in the killings of more than 1,200 Christians and Muslims.”
The group is pursuing a policy of “imposing an exclusive Islamic system of government in northern Nigeria at the expense of Christians specifically,” the report said.
The prosecutor’s office noted that Nigerian security forces may also have carried out human rights violations in its operations against the group, but said it had no indication that this was part of a “state or organisational policy to attack the civilian population.”
The prosecutor’s office said it would assess whether Nigerian authorities “are conducting genuine proceedings in relation to those who appear to bear the greatest responsibility for such crimes”.
Under the ICC’s complementarity principle, the court can step in only if national authorities are unwilling or unable to prosecute the crimes in question.
The ICC’s new chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in July that the ICC did not plan to intervene provided that Nigeria takes action through its own judicial system.
“The intention is not to intervene, but the intention is to ensure that Nigeria has the primary responsibility of investigating,” she said during her first visit to Nigeria after taking office.
Violence linked to Boko Haram’s insurgency is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
The group has claimed to be seeking an Islamist state in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer whose population is roughly divided between Christians and Muslims.
However, its demands have repeatedly shifted and the group is believed to include various factions with differing aims, in addition to imitators and criminal gangs who carry out violent attacks while posing as members of the group
But even if Abdulazeez does represent Shekau, the extent to which Boko Haram is controlled by Shekau is in doubt, and analysts think military pressure has fragmented it.
The letter nominated as mediator Imam Gabchiya, an official from the university in the city of Maiduguri, in the heartland of the Islamist insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan's government.
There was no immediate reaction from government officials, but Jonathan said on November 18 that no talks were going on with Boko Haram while they remained faceless and in the shadows.
The handover of the letter came three days after Nigeria's army offered a 290 million naira (1.1 million pounds) bounty for information leading to the capture of 19 leading members of the sect
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