Community leaders in areas affected by insurgency have been
directed to work with relevant agencies to end rejection of rehabilitated Boko
Haram fighters.
This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by
Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity.
More than 600 insurgents were said to have recently
completed a de-radicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration (DRR)
programme, but residents of Borno had rejected the plan to reintegrate them
into society.
However, according to the presidential spokesman, the
programme doesnt cover hardened insurgents, and community leaders must work
towards accepting the former Boko Haram fighters, or risk them taking up arms
again.
“This programme does not have a place for hard boiled,
ideologically hardened terrorists. It only admits, after careful scrutiny,
repentant fighters that were captured and forced to bear arms in the first
instance, and there are many who have been drafted by force,” Shehu said.
“At the point of their graduation, a determination is made that
the former combatants have repented and are better citizens, imbued with
genuine nationalism. They must no longer represent a danger to society or to
themselves.
“Where they are certified as such, communities have the duty
of accepting them. Unless they want them to take up arms and resume terrorism
from which they have repented, community leaders must work with the relevant
agencies to end their rejection.
“The Buhari administration is a responsible one and is
conscious of its duty to the state and society, and to the victims of terror as
well as to those who inflicted these pains and losses on our people.”
He also denied reports that some of the repented insurgents
were drafted to serve in the army.
“It is important for the public to know that nobody has ever
been absorbed into the military from the de-radicalized Boko Haram and there is
no such plan for their absorption,” he said.
“None of the 601 former Boko Haram members who voluntarily
laid down their arms, and have recently graduated from the Federal Government’s
de-radicalization and rehabilitation programme, is going into the military.
“This is the fourth such graduation of repentant Boko Haram
fighters and not one of such graduates has been absorbed into the military.
“The public needs to be reassured that the
de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists of
the Buhari administration code named “Operation Safe Corridor,” follows an
established example from countries with similar experiences, and is supported academically
and materially by the European Union and the United Nations.
“The lead agency for the implementation of the programme in
Gombe is the International Organization for Migration, a leading
inter-government organization which is represented in Nigeria.”
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