The new converts were given free clothing, food items, shops stocked with wares and commodities to assist them to begin a new life.
The National Emergency Management Agency has presented food and non-food items to the military for Operation Safe Corridor Programme meant to de-radicalise, rehabilitate and re-integrate 800 repentant Boko Haram insurgents.
According to the agency, the gesture was to fast track peace process in the North East.
The Director-General of NEMA, Mr. Sani Sidi, who presented the items in Gombe State, said the agency would continue to play its role in the programme by providing regular support of food and non-food items for the upkeep of the ex-terrorists.
Sidi, in a statement issued by the Media and Public Relations Officer of NEMA, Sani Datti, in Abuja on Tuesday, said, “The initiative, which is in line with international best practices allowed those engaged in the fighting to voluntarily surrender and embrace peace so that they can undergo rehabilitation.”
He stated that items to be released for this purpose every three months include 410 bags of rice, 400 bags of beans, 200 bags of millet, 200 bags of sorghum, 750 cartons of spaghetti, 50 cartons of Maggi cubes and 810 cartons tomato paste.
Others are 101 vegetable oil in 20 litre kegs, 101 palm oil in 20 litre kegs, 50 bags of salt, 100 bags of sugar, 420 cartons of milk and 420 cartons of milo chocolate.
The non-food items include 800 pieces of mattress, 500 hundred pieces of blanket, 500 pieces of nylon mats, 1000 plastic buckets, 1000 plastic spoons, 1000 plastic cups, 1000 plastic plates, 1000 plastic pairs of slippers, 2000 men’s wear, 63 cartons of bath soap and 1000 bath towels.
Receiving the items, the Coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor, Brigadier-General, Bamidele Shafa, said the initiative was designed to de-radicalise, rehabilitate and re-integrate willing and repented Boko Haram insurgents who had come out to surrender to the military and believing that it would quicken the peace process in the North East.
“Between September last year and February this year a good number of Boko haram insurgents have come out to surrender,” he added.
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Abubarka made this known when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum on Thursday in Abuja. He said that the operation was to rehabilitate, reintegrate, empower and de-radicalise surrendered members of the group. “Nigeria being a signatory to UN conventions, we have to comply fully with that portion of convention.
“Even if you arrest or capture an enemy or prisoner of war, by international law, you are to treat him with all human dignity; you must do that, as long as you are a signatory to UN convention.
“We evolved a policy by the defence headquarter and that operation is called operation ‘Safe Corridor’.
“Operation safe corridor is an operation trying to rehabilitate, reintegrate, empower and de-radicalise those, who surrender and those, who are captured.
“It is not in any way amnesty. We are trying to comply fully with international best global practices and that is why we came up with that.
“The Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Abayomi Olonishakin with other service chief agreed to this and they came up with this, which is the first of its kind since the terror of Boko Haram.
“And very soon, we will have a camp somewhere in the North- East where they will be kept for empowering and reintegrating and de-radicalising them.’’ However, he said that the military was not in any way relaxing in finding out the sponsors of boko haram.
“We are not in any way relaxing in finding out those who are sponsoring but those who are really active in the insurgency are our first target.
“The recruitment style of this insurgency is extremely worrisome; we are doing all we can to ensure that we block them though programmes that we have evolved.
“It has gone a long way in making them to surrender.’’ Abubakar said that the military in 2015 came up with security operation that targeted the insurgency. He said following the operation, a lot of boko haram members surrendered when they knew they would not be killed if they did so. He said that insurgency was something that was unpredictable, boundless and transitional.
Credit: Vanguard
A former Military Administrator of Bauchi and Osun states, Col. Theophilus Bamigboye (retd.); a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mallam Yusuf Ali; and the Bishop of the Diocese of Kwara, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Dr. Olusegun Adeyemi, on Sunday urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the anti-graft agencies to ensure that the anti-corruption war was not selective.
They also advised him not to spare any corrupt person in the country, irrespective of the person’s political affiliation or status.
Bamigboye and Ali spoke during interviews with journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on the sideline of presidential/award luncheon and fund raising of the Rotary Club of Ilorin GRA.
Adeyemi spoke in an interview with journalists during the diocese’s synod at Eiyenkorin, Ilorin.
Ali, who noted that the anti-corruption campaign was going on well, advised the Federal Government to grant amnesty to corrupt people who were willing to return their loot.
He believed that this would make the recovery of stolen money easier.
Ali said, “I agree that the anti-corruption war must be holistic; holistic to the level that even those who have not been caught are tracked down. There should be amnesty; call people who you have found to have taken our money to return the money. What is important to us is how to get the money. Sending people to jail will not translate to money.
“So if you have taken our N20 and you are ready to give back N19, you can keep the N1 and we take the N19, we are still better off.”
Bamigboye, who is the President, Rotary Club of Ilorin GRA, urged Buhari and the anti-graft agencies to recover all Nigeria’s stolen money.
He said, “Of course, I support the anti-corruption war. It should be holistic. If you are a thief, you are a thief. If you are caught, you return what you have stolen. We should recover all stolen money.”
Credit: Punch
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) yesterday announced the establishment of a rehabilitation camp for repentant Boko Haram members under an exercise known as Operation Safe Corridor.
Defence spokesman, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, said in a statement yesterday that the camp’s establishment was in furtherance of government’s efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate surrendered and repentant Boko Haram members.
“The main focus of Operation Safe Corridor is geared towards rehabilitating and reintegrating the repentant and the surrendering Boko Haram members back into normal life in the society,” General Abubakar said.
He added: “The repentant terrorists in the camp will be taken through various vocational trainings so that they can be useful to themselves and be empowered to contribute meaningfully to the economic growth of their fatherland.”
Abubakar said the Defence Headquarters appealed to militants who are still carrying arms against their fellow citizens to repent and benefit from the numerous opportunities offered by the camp.
He added that the military’s final onslaught against the remnants of the Boko Haram group would continue unabated until they are completely neutralized.
“The reluctant Boko Haram members should therefore see wisdom in surrendering now, thereby saving themselves from the imminent calamity that is about to fall on them in the event of the military mop-up if they continue in their unwholesome acts,” he said
Credit: DailyTrust
