More ‘Repentant’ Boko Haram Members Arrive Maiduguri From Niger Republic

The Borno State government has received more ‘repentant’ Boko Haram members that just arrived in Nigeria from the Niger Republic.

The repentant insurgents who arrived with their wives after surrendering to troops in the Niger Republic have arrived Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.

They arrived Maiduguri airport in a military aircraft in the company of soldiers led by Major General Bamidele Shafa, coordinator of the Federal Government Safe Corridor programme.

He said the government of Niger Republic contacted the Nigerian government to bring them home after they surrendered to the army in Niger and laid down their weapons.

“We have just delivered 25 persons, comprising men, women, and children.”

“So we have brought them home safely and handed them to the Borno State government for onward rehabilitation as part of the Operation Safe Corridor de-radicalization programme,” Shafa said.

He further highlighted that the same amnesty will be extended to other members of the group who decide to embrace the olive branch been extended to them by the government.

“We are using this opportunity to encourage those that are still in the bush come out because the president of the Federal Republic has given them an open arm to drop their weapons and embrace peace.”

The Borno State Commissioner of Women Affairs, Zuwaira Gambo, who received returnees on behalf of the state government said they will be provided with necessary help and facilities to help them settle down and eventually get re-integrated into the society.

We “will provide them with psychosocial support, feed them, clothe them, and give some form of education and skills acquisition,” she said.

She added that they will be equipped with vocational skills and empowerment “before they are reunited with their families.”

This news is coming a few weeks after Naija News reported that the news of the return of 1,400 suspected Boko Haram members into the society in Borno State has attracted ‘worrying’ reactions from some soldiers.

The disappointed soldiers lamented that the government is releasing ‘killers’ that they had previously captured back into the society.

It will be recalled that this online medium earlier published a story that 1,400 repentant Boko Haram suspects have been rehabilitated and released into the society by the military in Borno State under the ‘Operation Safe Corridor’ programme.

source https://www.naijanews.com/2020/02/27/more-repentant-boko-haram-members-arrive-maiduguri-from-niger-republic/