- Want Repentant Boko Haram Members Prosecuted
By Shakirudeen Bankole
Security experts have expressed worries over the seeming endless war against the Boko Haram insurgents, warning against the deradicalisation and reintegration of repenteant terrorists to society by the federal government.
Speaking on the Channels Television, Friday, the duo of Maj-Gen Garba Wahab, Former Director of Operations, Army Headquarters, and Onyekachi Adekoya, Zonal Provost Mashal, Association of Licensed Private Security Practitioner, said the Deradicalisation Programme of the President Buhari Government needs to be rechecked or outrightly abandoned.
They argued that due to emerging facts, which pointed to reported cases of terrorism attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, with Intel’s being provided by the supposedly deradicalised and reintegrated repentant members of the sect.
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Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno Constituency, lended credence to expert’s position, in a short teaser video clip played on the programme, where he vehemently opposed the deradicalisation Agenda of the FG.
Specifically, Ndume, attributed his antagonism to a recent sad occurrence, where 75 elderly men, from 65 and above, were said to have been matched to an abbatoir and slaughtered like rams!
Wahab, the former Director of Operations, Army Headquarters, explained that the idea of deradicalisation of Boko Haram Terrorist is not originally from the military, but from stakeholders who were weighing best options out of the situation.
“We need to understand that the war is being gallantly fought. The soldiers have been brave and fierce in their defense of the country.
“But the recurring cases of Boko Haram attacks leave little to desire. And that is where the community and stakeholders’ supports come in. The community leaders, people, security agencies must assist the military so that we can win the war,” he added.
For Adekoya, the challenge of insecurity in the country, has so much to do with the nation’s security architectures all together.
According to him, “security has a lot to do about structure,” he says, adding that insufficient personnel is one of the weaknesses the country has to work on.
In his words, he argued that, the country’s personnel are grossly insufficient. He said that such in itself is a security concern.
According to him, for instance, “the country should have a minimum of 500,000 Police Force and N150,000 to 200,000, soldiers, depending on our war involvement. Then the question of affordability will now be asked, can we afford to pay them?”
But what we have currently is 300,000 Regular Police and 100,000 solders.
“Another important issue is that of the Political Will. I remember that in 2015, the ruling party — APC setup a Restructuring Committee, headed by Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, whose Committee also alluded to the need for State Policing.
“I think we should start from there, legislatively and push it through afterwards,” he explained.
“But the question is, is the President ready for it? I said this because the President of Nigeria is one of the most power en men in the world. He can literarily do anything he wishes to do.
“Couple with the fact that we have a National Assembly which will most likely not oppose this President on loudable moves as this,” he explained.
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