Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State and chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum has lauded the federal government’s programme under the military on the deradicalisation, rehabilitation and re-integration of repentant insurgents.
The governor made the commendation as the military rehabilitates 2,168 former Boko Haram fighters at the rehabilitation camp in Malam Sidi Village of Kwami local government area of Gombe State.
Inuwa who served as special guest of honour at the graduation of Batch 5 and “Sulhu” Batch 6 at the camp organised by “Operation Safe Corridor|, said the rehabilitation of the repentant insurgents by the military is in the right direction towards giving them a second chance to contribute to the development of the nation.
Represented by his deputy, Manasseh Jatau, the governor appreciated the role of the federal government, the military, state governments in the North East, traditional rulers, community and religious leaders for seeing to the reintegration of the the clients.
In his address, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, said “Operation Safe Corridor “was set up in furtherance of curbing insurgency which has bedeviled the country, especially the North East sub-region region.
Represented by Major General Sani Mohammed Ahmed, the CDS said “Operation Safe Corridor” had over the years trained and integrated 2,168 former terrorists into the society.
He enjoined the people to disregard the insinuations that after the integration “the insurgents are later absorbed into the army, police and other paramilitary agencies”, pointing out that there were steps put forward to monitor the activities of the integrated persons.
He appealed to the North East governors to always include the the activities of Operation Safe Corridor in their meetings, and members of the public to support the scheme with a view of fulfilling their mandate.
In their separate remarks the coordinator, “Operation Safe Corridor”, Brigadier General S. Adamu and commandant, Deradicalization Rehabilitation and R-integration, stated that during the training, the participants were taught skills such as shoe making, tailoring, carpentry, laundry, barbing and wielding.
