Repentant Boko Haram members return to group after spying on communities - Babagana Zulum

Babagana Zulum, Governor of Borno State, says the reintegration of repentant Boko Haram members into the society is not working. 

He said some of the ex-Boko Haram members only come to spy on communities and then return to join the group.

He was speaking at the North-East Governors’ Forum meeting in Bauchi on Thursday.

Zulum said that deradicalisation initiave has failed and need to be reviewed inorder to achieve its goal.

In his words;

“Another aspect of the war against the insurgency that needs to be urgently reviewed or modified, is the issue of deradicalisation of Boko Haram terrorists, who have been captured or have willingly surrendered themselves to the authorities."

“It has been confirmed that the concept of deradicalisation or Safe Corridor is not working as expected. Quite often, those who have passed through the Safe Corridor initiative, or have been deradicalised, usually go back and rejoin the terror group after carefully studying the various security arrangements in their host communities, during the reintegration process.

“In addition, the host communities where the reintegration process is going on usually resent the presence of Boko Haram terrorists, even if they have been deradicalised, because of the despicable and atrocious activities they have committed in the past.

“So the idea of deradicalisation, as currently being implemented, needs to be reviewed because the main goals and the underlying objectives behind the initiative are not being achieved.” 

He therefore advised that the prosecution of Boko Haram members be fast tracked in line with terrorism act with the devolution of powers to prosecute to the state attorney's.“

On the prosecution of terrorists, we must make efforts to avoid the current encumbrances and intricacies associated with the process, which usually takes considerable time, by urging the appropriate federal authorities to devolve the powers of the minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation to state attorneys-general in order to facilitate the prosecution process,” he said. 

The military in 2016 launched Operation Safe Corridor, an initiative for the deradicalisation and rehabilitation of ex-Boko Haram members. More than 500 ex-Boko Haram members have already completed the programme.