The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has confirmed that 800 former Boko Haram insurgents who surrendered to the military are currently undergoing a deradicalisation programme as part of efforts to reintegrate them into society.
Speaking on Channels TV Morning Brief on Monday, February 10, 2025, the Chief of Defence Training and Operations, Emeka Onumajuru, stated that the military considers one year sufficient for the re-orientation and reintegration process.
He noted that while 129,000 Boko Haram fighters and their families had so far surrendered, only a select group had been chosen for rehabilitation.
Onumajuru explained that all surrendered individuals are subjected to legal scrutiny, with those found guilty facing prosecution, while others deemed fit for rehabilitation are placed in the deradicalisation programme tagged Operation Safe Corridor.
“To get the numbers right, right now, (we have) about 129,000 surrendered BH (Boko Haram) members and their families,” he said.
“We are a professional army and when you are in combat and an opponent surrenders, then you take him and let the legal processes take its natural course.
“Right now, some of them are detention facilities, some of them are in Kainji, and there is a special court that goes through all of them. Those that were found culpable face the books and those that are going to be deradicalised go through the process and this takes about a year.
“The number taken in is not huge. As I said, we have 129,000 BH members and families. It doesn’t mean the 129,000 are going through the programme.
“The people going through the programme right now are about 800 – in batches. Those 800 are people that have been sieved through the entire legal process before they are now brought to the centre.”