The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has confirmed that 800 former Boko Haram fighters who surrendered to the Nigerian military are currently undergoing a deradicalisation programme. This initiative is aimed at preparing them for reintegration into society after years of involvement in insurgency.
The Chief of Defence Training and Operations, Emeka Onumajuru, shared this information during an interview on Channels TV Morning Brief on Monday, February 10, 2024. He revealed that while approximately 129,000 Boko Haram fighters and their family members have surrendered, only 800 individuals have been selected to participate in the ongoing rehabilitation programme.
He said, “To get the numbers right, right now, (we have) about 129,000 surrendered BH (Boko Haram) members and their families.
“We are a professional army and when you are in combat and an opponent surrenders, then you take him and let the legal processes take its natural course.
“Right now, some of them are 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 and this takes about a year.”
Contrary to popular opinion about terrorists, the army chief said it is possible to deradicalise terrorists and reintegrate them into the society in one year.
“It’s possible because the deradicalisation is done by professionals. That one-year period is sufficient enough depending on the people handling the deradicalisation,” he said.
“The number taken in is not huge. As I said, we have 129,000 BH 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. Those 800 are people that have been sieved through the entire legal process before they are now brought to the centre.
“The deradicalisation carried out by the Operation Safe Corridor is part of the non-kinetic. You cannot win an asymmetrical war with just a kinetic approach.”
