The recent decision by the Federal Government and the military to release in large numbers ‘repentant’ Boko Haram suspects has continued to generate apprehension not only among the citizenry, but also among the officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
These ‘repentant’ suspected insurgents, inspite of the enormity of the crimes they have committed against the Nigerian state, innocent citizens and humanity in general, are being let off the hook by authorities under the Operation Safe Corridor’s De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration programme.
Although the DRR programme is aimed at encouraging Boko Haram insurgents to surrender, get de-radicalised and be rehabilitated before being allowed to rejoin the society, the implementation of such a programme, particularly the premature release of the suspects from custody, has left many Nigerians in bewilderment.
The citizens are even more confused by the Senate’s plan to establish a rehabilitation agency for ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorists while their victims are still languishing in the misery caused and painfully living with the mental, emotional and physical scars inflicted upon them by these insurgents.
Nigerians are no doubt skeptical about the sincerity of these ‘repentant’ terrorists, whose alter egos have been unrelenting, consistent and deadlier in their attacks on the Nigerian state and her citizens in the North Eastern part of the country in the past ten years.
So far, over 1500 of these ‘repentant’ and ‘rehabilitated’ ex-terrorists have been released by the authorities to “go and sin no more.” This strange gesture by the government towards criminals who took up arms against the Nigerian state and even killed innocent citizens and patriotic soldiers, while the war against insurgency is yet over, is seen by those who have fallen their victims as most insensitive and lacking any iota of empathy.
Having been captured in combat, it is natural that these ‘repentant’ terrorists would, with tongue in cheek, confess their past misdeeds; denounce membership of Boko Haram, beg for forgiveness and even swear an oath of allegiance to Nigeria, but these display of penitence may not be enough to set them free within so short a time. These captured insurgents have only surrendered to a superior force.
Unabashedly, their comrades-in-arms have continued to wreak havoc against the Nigerian state, resulting in the carnage experienced virtually every day, especially in the North East. The evil group, though claimed Federal Government to have been significantly degraded, has continued to kill innocent Nigerians and ambush troops in the North East of the country as well as in neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, where its fighters often attack civilian population and military targets.
The decade-old violence has left over 27,000 people dead and displaced no fewer than two million. Terrorism is known to have crippled the economies of nations across the globe. The insurgency, according to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has also cost Nigeria about $9billion.
The sect, which split into two factions last year, has become more ferocious in its attacks and also not relenting on stocking up its arsenal. The security situation in North East Nigeria is really not improving, and this should necessitate a comprehensive review of the military’s strategy rather than resorting to the defeatist ‘rehabilitation and release’ of suspected criminals under the DRR programme.
A raid in 2018 by the insurgents on a military base in Metele near the border with Niger and Chad left no fewer than a hundred soldiers dead and more than 150 others missing, though the army insisted that the death toll was only 23. Since then, there have been series of attacks by the insurgents on military bases and barracks in the conflict zone with the attendant loss of lives and military hardware recorded.
The Army itself said it “noticed daring moves by the terrorists, increased use of drones against our defensive positions and infusion of foreign fighters in their ranks. These potent threats require us to continually review our operations.”
The current spate of insecurity has made Nigeria look more or less like a failed state due to the nefarious activities of these insurgents.
Foreign and local media reports have indicated that no fewer than 19 attempts had been made since July 2018 by the Boko Haram to overrun military bases in the North East. The insurgents have also continued to attack villages and Internally Displaced Persons’ camps around Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, in the past months.
According to defence analysts, the two factions of the Boko Haram, as at today, have an estimated 6,000 fighters.
ISWAP’s control of territories around Lake Chad has become more consolidated and its attacks fiercer than ever before, just as JAS in Borno’s Sambisa Forest has continued to entrench itself.
Moreover, the Federal Government has yet to investigate the recent claims by the Wall Street Journal of the secret burial in November 2018 of some 1000 soldiers allegedly killed by the insurgents in Borno State. Since the military usually conducts its affairs in secret, there may be some elements of truth in this claim by the international news medium.
The insurgency’s 10-year evolution and geographical movements speak volumes about Boko Haram’s antecedents and the surprise it can spring any time. Some of its fighters are believed to have transformed to bandits and relocated to the North West to continue to ravage rural populations in the forests in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna, where they now engage in violent cattle rustling and dangerous kidnapping of citizens for ransom. It is clear that the factions of the sect still have the capacity to operate elsewhere under new and different nomenclatures.
It’s a notorious fact that Boko Haram insurgents have, in one way or the other, continued to contribute their own quota to the worsening spate of insecurity across the country.
The salutary effect of the DRR programme, which began the release of the ‘repentant’ insurgents since 2016/2018, has yet to be truly felt. Rather, insurgency in the North East has escalated and insecurity across the country has worsened.
We can’t afford to treat terrorists with kid gloves. The government and the military must do everything to restore security and peace to all parts of Nigeria now. The DRR programme is a clear evidence of Federal Government’s weak strategy against the escalating insecurity in the country. The Nigerian military can vanquish terrorism without embarking on the needless rehabilitation and release of insurgents. Let’s leave the forgiveness of terrorists to God and stop setting these ‘repentant’ criminals and murderers free in the name of de-radicalisation and rehabilitation. They should rather be made to answer for their senseless killing of innocent civilians, our soldiers, the wanton destruction of properties and the rendering of many homeless and leaving thousands of others even without communities to call their own anymore.
The DRR strategy is not the right step at this point in dealing a deadly blow to terrorism. Releasing ‘rehabilitated’ suspected terrorists after a short while is akin to returning a captured animal to the wild. It would in no time merely go back to its naturally raw and bestial state. These ‘repentant, de-radicalised and rehabilitated’ suspected terrorists are prone to returning to their barbaric enterprise, upon release from custody, especially in a less saner clime like ours.
The timeframe for camping and releasing these ‘repentant’ Boko Haram fighters is rather too short. They should be isolated in camps for not less than five years because they have committed an offence punishable by death. Under normal circumstances, subjecting them to the maximum punishment would have been the only option.
