47 fighters dump Boko Haram

The Head of the Countering Violent Extremism Department in the Office of the National Security Adviser, Dr. Fatima Akilu, told President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday that no fewer than 22 women and girls recruited as suicide bombers by members of the Boko Haram sect are now undergoing rehabilitation under the programme.

Boko Haram and Nigeria soldiers

She said the female trained as suicide bombers by the sect were being rehabilitated after voluntarily embracing the agency’s de-radicalisation programme.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, quoted Akilu as speaking during a meeting she had with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to brief him of the department’s activities.

One of the objectives of the CVE is to reform terrorists and prevent others from joining terrorist organisations and violent sects.

Akilu told the President that the programme’s non-military approach was running concurrently with the armed onslaught against insurgents in the country.

She said so far, the CVE had rehabilitated no fewer than 305 victims of terrorism rescued from the Sambisa Forest by the Nigerian military.

She told the President that a National Security Corridor Programme had been created to provide a safe route for those who wish to dump their membership of Boko Haram voluntarily and that 47 erstwhile members of the group had embraced the programme.

Buhari applauded steps being taken by the Office of the NSA and other agencies of government to rehabilitate victims of terrorism and violent extremism in Nigeria.

He promised that the Federal Government would continue to do its best to ensure that victims of Boko Haram’s atrocities receive necessary support, even as it strives to rid the country of terrorism and insurgency in the shortest possible time.

Meanwhile, governors of north-eastern states on Tuesday suggested a tripartite approach to handling victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.

The governors rose from an emergency meeting held at the Bauchi State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, to request that the Federal Government and the nation’s development partners expedite action towards the resettlement and reintegration of victims of the insurgency.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues after the meeting, the Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo, said, “We agreed that the North-East Regional Development Plan Committee should liaise with DFID to establish an institutional frame work for the region.”

The governors suggested that apart from what the various state governments were doing on their own for themselves and the assistance they were rendering to one another, it would help for the Federal Government and development partners to increase their tempo of activities.

Dankwambo further explained that he and his colleagues approved that the regional committee should engage and explore areas of cooperation with international development partners and governors of the six states in the zone.

The governors had also received the report of the North-East Transformation Strategy, tagged; “Development Agenda” which is a follow-up to the last year’s North-East Economic Forum.

They also approved the setting up of a secretariat in Bauchi State and a liaison office in Abuja.

The governors, who announced plans to see the President on the matter soon, also appealed to the Federal Government to accord the challenges facing the North-East top priority in order to restore the region’s economy which has been ravaged by the activities of the insurgents.

47 fighters dump Boko Haram