The Nigerian Senate has begun deliberations on a bill seeking to create an agency that would be concerned with the rehabilitation and integration of repentant insurgents in the country.
A bill, sponsored by Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe East senatorial district, was read for the first time on the floor of the Senate Thursday.
Already a subject of fierce push back, the bill offers further concession to Boko Haram militants who choose to cease fire.
Last month, the Nigerian military said no fewer than 608 repentant Boko Haram insurgents were undergoing the De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) programme under its Operation Safe Corridor in Malam-Sidi, Gombe State.
However, the proposed legislation has been rejected by a group of Borno elders, led by ex-governor Kashim Shettima, who posit that the military’s operation was not well thought out.
They feared that releasing the purported repentant Boko Haram militants into civilian population could be counterproductive as hardened fighters would return to the terror group to commit more atrocities.
