The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has told President Muhammadu Buhari to either put repentant Boko Haram members on trial in court, or release all prisoners in correctional centres across the country,
About 1,000 Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters have surrendered to the Nigerian troops in the past weeks under the Operation Safe Corridor of the Nigerian army, an initiative of the federal government to rehabilitate and reintegrate them back into the society.
In a statement issued to journalists in Kaduna on Tuesday, national chairman of the forum, Audu Ogbeh, said the Buhari government’s rehabilitation program is greatly flawed because it fails to grant justice to victims of those being rehabilitated.
Ogbeh said the fact that members of the group claimed to have repented does not mean crimes were not committed, and for which they must be put on trial.
The ACF noted that there is no justification to keep prisoners in jail, no matter their crimes, if the Buhari administration will continue to welcome the repentant insurgents without prosecution.
The group added that the repentant terrorists are not different from Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho, and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and should be treated as such.
“We are currently witnessing large scale surrender of large numbers of Boko Haram insurgents, among whom are bomb makers, commanders, arsonists, rapists, and child snatchers. Do we have good reason to cheer and hope for an end to this decade-old insanity?” ACF said.
“Is ‘I am sorry’ enough to bring relief to Nigerians and the thousands of dead and maimed? What of those victims bombed in the churches, mosques, schools, and markets?
“What of all the men and women in uniform murdered by them? Who can count the thousands of widows and orphans they have created?
“And what is the difference between them and the Ighoho’s or ESN of Nigeria? None.
“So what do we do with them? Should we just embrace them and trust them wholesale? Are their moves informed by altruistic repentance? We seriously doubt it.
“We join the Governor of Borno, the Shehu of Borno, Senator Ndume and millions of Nigerians in pondering over this development and our simple advice is: Bring them to trial, or free all others presently in custody anywhere, while we Nigerians plead guilty of naivety and gullibility in the extreme, punishable by more insurrection and anarchy”
