Repentant Boko Haram members not absorbed into Nigeria Army: Presidency
- The presidency has said that repentant Boko Haram members will not be absorbed into the Nigerian Army
- This position of the presidency was actually put forward by Garba Shehu, a presidential media aide
- Shehu said that after the deradicalisation and rehabilitation programme, the former insurgents will become better citizens and should be accepted by the society
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The presidency has denied claims that the federal government is planning to absorb repentant and deradicalised former Boko Haram insurgents into the Nigerian Army.
Condemning the notion as false, a media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, said that the rehabilitation and reintegration of the former terrorists which is code-named Operation Safe Corridor take a leap from other countries which have taken similar measure successfully to curb insurgency, PM News reports.
Defending the federal government's position which many Nigerians have kicked against, Shehu said: "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.
"It is also important to note that 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."
Source: UGC
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Not only that, but the presidential media aide also said that after the programme, the ex-insurgents will be "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 They must no longer represent a danger to society or to themselves.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."
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that forty-seven members of Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) insurgent groups had surrendered to troops of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in the Lake Chad and surrounding areas.
A spokesperson for the MNJTF N’Djamena – Chad, Col Timothy Antigha, in a statement on Friday, July 24, disclosed that the insurgents surrendered with their families recently in Sector 1 of the MNJTF.
Antigha said the terrorists were prompted to surrender following the power tussle in the top ranks of the insurgent groups and the failure to establish a caliphate.
The MNJTF stated that a member of the group who surrendered expressed frustration with the lack of progress in the jihad and the preoccupation of the leadership in the pursuit of material things.
Soldiers have killed 92 Boko Haram members in the past week - Major General Enenche | Legit TV
Source: Legit.ng
