Some retired troopers have once more warned the Federal Authorities to watch out with its determination to rehabilitate and reintegrate some repentant terrorists who’ve gone via the federal government’s deradicalisation programme, Operations Protected Hall.
The OSC which started beneath former president Muhammadu Buhari has run for a number of years and seen no fewer than 4,000 ex-Boko Haram members undergo the programme.
In Gombe State alone, for example, in September 2023, no fewer than 2,168 ex-Boko Haram members have been stated to have handed via the De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration camp on the Kwami Native Authorities Space of Gombe State within the final eight years.
In January 2023, no fewer than 613 rehabilitated terrorists present process de-radicalisation have been scheduled to be handed over by the army authorities to their respective state governors.
Nevertheless, in July 2022, some repentant Boko Haram members, regardless of renouncing their membership of the phobia group, have been accused of getting contact with their former colleagues, supplying them intelligence.
The previous terrorists have been stated to be among the many 800 individuals who have been lately reintegrated into the Bama group in Borno State and have been resettled on the Authorities Ladies’ Secondary Faculty Bama.
A few of them have been additionally accused of appearing as spies for terrorist teams previously.
Reacting on the matter, a retired colonel, Hassan Stan-Labo, acknowledged, “If we have now mobilised and introduced them (terrorists) out for rehabilitation, it’s already too late; there’s nothing we will do however to go the entire hog; undergo your complete demobilisation, de-radicalisation and rehabilitation.
“Nevertheless, if I have been the commander-in-chief, my directions would have been: ‘Don’t convey anyone for any rattling rehabilitation; you bloody nicely can pay the value for no matter you may have accomplished on the battle entrance’.
“You need a battle, come get the battle. You may have dedicated every kind of atrocities and now, you flip round begging for forgiveness. We don’t have a accountability to forgive you; we hasten your journey to heaven. Go and meet God and ask for penance. What will we inform the individuals within the displaced individuals camps, who aren’t even getting the type of therapy we’re giving these guys?”
He additionally requested that correct biometrics ought to be taken of those guys so they might not discover their approach into the army.
“We are able to have the biometrics of those guys and since fingerprints are used in the midst of recruitment, we must always have the ability to fish out those that could need to be a part of the army. If we have now a really efficient intelligence community on the bottom, this wouldn’t occur. I’m additionally conscious that the Borno State Authorities is documenting their biometrics information. That’s an excellent place to begin,” he added.
One other retired army officer, who served within the Nigerian Navy however refused to be named, stated it was fallacious to imagine that terrorists would repent as a result of the federal government made them undergo a programme.
“We’re speaking of arduous criminals who kill harmless individuals for a dwelling and go away households abandoned. They destroy individuals’s livelihoods and really feel nothing. Why will a number of months or years programme deradicalise them? What was the federal government considering when it stated it needs to reintegrate them again into the society to dwell with the identical individuals whom they rendered homeless? The federal government must have a transparent rethink. No terrorist ought to be handled with child’s gloves,” the soldier added.
Additionally talking, a former director of the Division of State Providers, Mr Mike Ejiofor, stated the rehabilitation programme appeared not well-thought-out and ill-timed.
He stated, “The federal government has been releasing a few of them beneath the notion that they’ve been de-radicalised. These identical individuals will return into the society and begin wreaking havoc. I feel the federal government ought to rethink its stance on the discharge of de-radicalised insurgents to keep away from reintroducing criminals into the society.
“You’ll be able to’t proceed to launch them within the warmth of the issues when not one of the individuals which were arrested has been efficiently prosecuted to function deterrent to others. Since they don’t seem to be prosecuted, they don’t seem to be afraid of going again to their previous approach.”
