Boko Haram ready for peace talks with Nigeria, says alleged sect member Abubakar Shekau, the Boko Haram leader, in a video address released in January. Previous attempts to hold peace talks have collapsed. Photograph: Reuters The radical Islamist group Boko Haram is willing to enter peace talks with Nigeria's government if they are held in Saudi Arabia and spearheaded by a former military ruler, an alleged member of the sect has 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," Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz said in the city of Maidugiri, the northern stronghold of Boko Haram. He said Muhamed Buhari, a Muslim colonel who ruled Nigeria for 20 months after seizing power in 1984, had to be a negotiator during talks. It is the first contact by Boko Haram since Nigerian security forces said they had killed its spokesperson, known by the alias Abu Qaqa, in September. Outside understanding of the myriad factions thought to operate under the Boko Haram banner has hinged on intermediaries who represent the leader, Abubakar Shekau. Abdulaziz said he represented Shekau, though unusually he spoke entirely in English. A senior security source said the demands were being considered as potentially genuine. 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," the source said. Boko Haram began as a largely peaceful movement in the north-east of Nigeria before it radicalised and began demanding the nationwide application of strict sharia law. By the time it had struck the UN headquarters in the capital, Abuja, last August, outside help and training was coming from al-Qaida-affiliated groups in Afghanistan and Algeria, security sources say. The militant group's most powerful and active branch was initially headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Members of the group have met senior al-Qaida figures during visits to Saudia Arabia, Qaqa claimed in an interview with the Guardian this year. Previous attempts to hold peace talks have collapsed, but insiders say efforts towards reaching the group have improved since President Goodluck Jonathan replaced his top security adviser with a colonel from the Muslim north.