By Adebisi Adeyemi, Lagos
The first set of 95 surrendered Boko Haram Fighters who have completed a component of Deradicalization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) Programme would be reunited with their families.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ Meeting to Work out Modalities for the Reintegration of Rehabilitated Ex-Boko Haram Fighters, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin said the former fighters who were admitted into a DRR Camp in Gombe State had successfully gone through 16 weeks programme.
He said: “The ex-fighters have been transformed made to imbibe good characters and habits and have also learnt vocational trades to empower them
“The next stage of the programme, Reintegration is the most important and complex aspect of the DRR Programme. It requires painstaking planning and careful execution. Hence, the need for our gathering to work out modalities for the smooth transfer of the ex-fighters to their respective state authorities and eventually to their relations.”
Olonisakin said that the programme is part of Operation Safe Corridor established to create opportunity for willing -surrendered and repentant Boko Haram Fighters undergo Deradicalization process.
He said “the programme is to facilitate their return to normal life. Consequently, a Committee comprising governors of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe State, Service Chiefs among other security agencies was set up under my chairmanship to midwife the programme.”
PRNigeria gathered that 375 officials from the Armed Forces of Nigeria and 12 other Ministries, Departments and agencies are pooled under a unified command and control executing the DRR programme. Some of the agencies included the Nigerian Police, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Prison Service (NPS), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Victim Support Fund (VSF), Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) and Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
Other members of the Committee include Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative (PCNI) and National Orientation Agency (NOA).
