By John Ikani
About 559 repentant Boko Haram terrorists have graduated from the federal government’s De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) programme.
The former insurgents, who passed out from the camp during a light ceremony over the weekend, had embraced the Nigerian Government’s amnesty to lay down arms in return for rehabilitation and reintegration back to society.
Wearing white attire with green caps, the repentant terrorists each swore an oath of allegiance to the federal government of Nigeria during the event which was held on Sunday, in Gombe state.
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, who was represented at the occasion by Major-General Adeyemi Yekini, admonished the graduates to exhibit a high sense of responsibility by obeying laid down rules and putting skills acquired during their time in the camp to good use.
The CDS urged the repentant Boko Haram members to appreciate and reciprocate the confidence reposed in them as “worthy beneficiaries of our DDR programme”.
“As you turn to your communities for your integration stage, I urge you all to brace up for the challenges ahead,” Yekini said.
“Some of you will encounter resentment and rejections in your communities but I can assure you, if you remember and practise everything you have learnt during the DRR programme, you will surmount these challenges.
“I urge you to go out there and be worthy ambassadors of Operation Safe Corridor by being law-abiding and responsible citizens.
“Finally, I want to remind you of the consequences of violating the oath of allegiance you have sworn. You must uphold the pledge to be loyal to the federal government at all times and shun all forms of violence and criminality.”
What you should know
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari in September 2015 established the Operation Safe Corridor to encourage willing and repentant Boko Haram members to surrender and go through a well-structured rehabilitation and deradicalisation and reintegration programmes.
The programmed tagged de-radicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration (DRR) programme has graduated over 8000 former Boko Haram members since 2015, according to its cordinator Joseph Maina.
During the rehabilitation period, the ex-Boko Haram members were exposed to different skills including tailoring, shoemaking, cap making, carpentry and laundry and are now expected to support themselves and their families by earning an income doing any of the jobs in their home communities.
Maina said the graduating class arrived at the DRR camp between July 15 and September 6, 2021.
According to him, the repentant fighters went through various rebuilding activities of the programme which includes medical screening, psychological and psychospiritual counselling, sports therapy, drug abuse counselling, western education and vocational training.
He further explained that the programme is driven by personnel from the 17 services, ministries, departments and agencies to execute the concept of operation.
