The National Counter Terrorism Centre, Office of the National Security Adviser (NCTC-ONSA), has confirmed that at least 5,000 repented Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province (BH/ISWAP) terrorists who have gone through the deradicalisation programme have been reunited with their families.
The deradicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration programme, which is run under Operation Safe Corridor for a period of six months, helps to reintegrate the former terror fighters back to the society.
The NCTC-ONSA said that none of the repentant terrorists returned to the frontlines of fight against terrorism after the programme.
Ambassador Mairo Musa Abbas, Head of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE), revealed details of the programme at the second-day session of the Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum.
The Ambassador, who spoke at the Third Penal with theme “Managing Boko Haram Exits and Demobilization of Armed Groups,” said harmonised strategy would help the Governors of Lake Chad region to address their common challenges.
According to her: “Under Operation Safe Corridor programme, we have deradicalised over 5,000 ex-combatants of Boko Haram and reunited them with their families.
“They are using the skills they have acquired in the six months of deradicalisation programme in the camp, to sustain themselves within the communities.
“Our collaborators from the National Orientation Agency (NOA) are within 774 local governments in Nigeria and traditional & religious leaders within the community they have monitoring mechanism where are able to monitor this mechanism and see their progress after the reintegration within the community.”
Ambassador Abbas added: “Borno Model,” a State-led strategy, which aimed at reintegrating individuals who left extremist groups like Boko Haram, had complemented the efforts of the federal government to promote peace in the country.
“We always said ‘Borno Model’ is a model of necessity but we have recorded a lot of success with the Model because many repented fighters, have been reunited with families.”
She, however, called on the Governors in the Lake Chad region and stakeholders to harmonise their strategy to ensure that they work on the same level.
