Amid disapproval by most Nigerian, the Defence Headquarters has stated that 800 former Boko Haram fighters who voluntarily surrendered to the military are currently being rehabilitated to be sent back into the society.
Speaking on Channels TV Morning Brief on Monday, the Chief of Defence Training and Operations, Emeka Onumajuru said that out of 129,000 Boko Haram fighters and their families who surrendered, only a select group were chosen for rehabilitation.
“To get the numbers right, right now, (we have) about 129,000 surrendered Boko Haram members and their families”.
He said within the framework of the selection process, every member of the group who surrendered are meant to go through scrutiny which takes about a year to ascertain those qualified for rehabilitation.
“Some of them are in 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, which takes about a year,” he noted.
The military chief defended the feasibility of rehabilitating former insurgents within a year, stating that the programme is handled by professionals under Operation Safe Corridor, a non-kinetic approach to combating terrorism.
“It’s possible because the deradicalisation is done by professionals. That one-year period is sufficient enough, depending on the people handling the deradicalisation,” Onumajuru asserted.
He further clarified that not all surrendered fighters are automatically admitted into the programme.
“The number taken in is not huge. As I said, we have 129,000 Boko Haram 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,” he explained.
