Boko Haram members
According to a report by Premium Times, the Senate on Thursday began
moves to establish an agency that would see to the rehabilitation,
deradicalisation and integration of repentant insurgents in the country.
A bill, sponsored by Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe East senatorial district,
was read for the first time on the floor of the Senate Thursday.
Already a subject of fierce push back, the bill offers further concession to Boko Haram militants who choose to cease fire.
Last month, the Nigerian military said no fewer than 608 repentant Boko
Haram insurgents were undergoing the De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation
and Reintegration (DRR) programme under its Operation Safe Corridor in
Malam-Sidi, Gombe State.
Clients, the military euphemism for the repentant insurgents, were said
to have been exposed to formal literacy classes, skills acquisition and
Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) as well as drug and psycho-therapists
during their training.
A group of Borno elders, led by ex-governor Kashim Shettima, last year,
had frowned at the initiative, saying the military’s operation was not
well thought out.
They feared that releasing the purported repentant Boko Haram militants
into civilian population could be counterproductive as hardened fighters
would return to the terror group to commit more atrocities.
“The ongoing de-radicalization and reintegration of repentant Boko Haram
insurgents under the “operation safe corridor” of the defense
headquarters is a course for concern for members of the Civilian JTF and
some stakeholders in the State,” the group wrote in a letter last year.
“(We) suspect that “Boko Haram members do not repent” hence the
de-radicalization programme may be breeding spies and agents of
recruitment for the Boko Haram,” they had said.
They urged the president to approve the suspension of the programme.
More Nigerians have also spoken out against the policy.