The Nigerian Army has so far released a total of 152 ex-Boko Haram terrorists and rehabilitated them back into the society after undergoing 12 months
The Nigerian Army has so far released a total of 152 ex-Boko Haram terrorists and rehabilitated them back into the society after undergoing 12 months of de-radicalization training in Gombe State. They have since been reunited with their families upon their graduation.
The de-radicalisation programme is part of the military’s Operation Safe Corridor which was launched in 2016 to encourage terrorists to surrender amid the untold atrocity wreaked by the terror group in 10 years of insurgency in the northeast region. According to the Gombe Camp Commandant, Colonel Beyidi Martins, Operation Safe Corridor is an effective non-combat approach to fighting Boko Haram as it frustrates its recruitment efforts.
While speaking at the ex-terrorists’ graduation ceremony, Martins said the repentant militants were assessed by psychologists, social workers, and other psycho-social support experts who passed them fit to return to society. During their de-radicalisation, the repentant militants were trained and equipped with vocational skills to make them more useful and self-reliant and keep them from falling back to their old ways.
He said “The Federal Government is using this programme to cut the abilities of the sect to recruit more members and also ensure defection into the programme by other insurgents. By the time this is achieved, the government will be able to reduce the number of free hands the sect recruits to fight it,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria.
President Muhammadu Buhari directed the establishment of Operation Safe Corridor at a National Security Council meeting in September 2015.
