Borno state commissioner for women affairs, Zuwaira Gambo has come out to disclose why they are rehabilitating people considered as repentant Boko Haram members after their arrest.
Gambo admitted that the term “repentant Boko Haram terrorists” gives wrong signals to members of the public especially people the terrorism had affected. She said this while speaking at a forum on preventing and countering violent extremism organised by Search for Common Ground (SFCG) in partnership with UN Women and the government of Japan in Abuja over the weekend.
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The commissioner who said that the public have misunderstood the de-radicalisation and reintegration of Boko Haram members as a result of a communication gap between the government and citizens, she continued by saying that some of the arrested terrorists are victims who had no part to play because they were forced to join the terrorist group and were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
She said;
“Some of the persons reintegrated are victims who had no part to play but were arrested in the course of security checks by the military as they were caught at the wrong time in a wrong place.
“Because they have spent time in detention between two to five years, there is need for rehabilitation, counselling and socio- psychological support.
“We are not saying that there are not some people who have partaken in destruction of lives and properties but these people are in the minority and you also have to understand that these set of people joined involuntarily as they are forced to do so.”
