The presidency on Wednesday refuted reports making the rounds in the media that repentant Boko Haram terrorists are being recruited into the Nigerian military.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said in a statement in Abuja that no such thing happened.
As per Garuba, with a tinge of rebuke, “Now that groups with hitherto proven bona fides, some religious leaders and a few in the legislature have joined the supply chain of fake news, it important that we step in to clear the false reports that the administration is absorbing repentant Boko Haram terrorists into the military.
“It is important for the public to know that nobody has ever been absorbed into the military from the de-radicalized Boko Haram and there is no such plan for their absorption.
“None of the 601 former Boko Haram members who voluntarily laid down their arms, and have recently graduated from the Federal Government’s de-radicalization and rehabilitation programme, is going into the military. This is the fourth such graduation of repentant Boko Haram fighters and not one of such graduates has been absorbed into the military.”
Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum whose convoy was attacked by soldiers had alleged the possibility of fifth columnists among the troops, who compromise the military efforts.
The governor’s position precipitated various kinds of suggestions in the social media, with some Nigerians alleging that the attack was carried out by the repentant insurgents who had allegedly joined the army.
Shehu dismissed all such rumours as fake news, saying:
“It is important for the public to know that nobody has ever been absorbed into the military from the de-radicalized Boko Haram and there is no such plan for their absorption.”
According to Garuba, the Federal Government’s Operation Safe Corridor programme which aims at rehabilitating the ex-terrorists are under constant monitor of the International Organisation for Migration.
The presidential spokesman further said, “None of the 601 former Boko Haram members who voluntarily laid down their arms, and have recently graduated from the Federal Government’s de-radicalization and rehabilitation programme, is going into the military.
“This is the fourth such graduation of repentant Boko Haram fighters and not one of such graduates has been absorbed into the military.
“The public needs to be reassured that the de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists of the Buhari administration code-named “Operation Safe Corridor,” follows an established example from countries with similar experiences, and is supported academically and materially by the European Union and the United Nations.”
