Crisis As Stakeholders
Reject Amnesty For
‘Repentant’ Boko Haram Terrorists
• Senate moves to create agency
for insurgents’ welfare
• It’s impunity taken too far,
says Afenifere
• Arewa youths want sponsor of
bill investigated
• Why it is an invitation to
war, by HURIWA
A fresh crisis looms in the
country as stakeholders yesterday rejected a move by the Senate to establish an
agency to make life comfortable for ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorists
irrespective of their wanton destruction of lives and property.
Specifically, ignoring
persistent public outcry against the release of the suspected insurgents, the
Senate has begun a legislative process to grant amnesty to the terrorists.
Why president enlarged NDDC
interim management committee, by Akpabio
8 hours ago
COVID-19: Cured cases surpasses
new confirmed cases – Embassy
5 hours ago
Half a million tonnes of
electronic wastes dumped in Nigeria monthly - Don
4 hours ago
President Buhari. Photo:
TWITTER/NIGERIAGOV
• Senate moves to create agency
for insurgents’ welfare
• It’s impunity taken too far,
says Afenifere
• Arewa youths want sponsor of
bill investigated
• Why it is an invitation to
war, by HURIWA
A fresh crisis looms in the
country as stakeholders yesterday rejected a move by the Senate to establish an
agency to make life comfortable for ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorists
irrespective of their wanton destruction of lives and property.
Specifically, ignoring
persistent public outcry against the release of the suspected insurgents, the
Senate has begun a legislative process to grant amnesty to the terrorists.
This the lawmakers plan to
achieve by passing a bill for an Act tagged “National Agency for Education,
Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in
Nigeria 2020, SB. 340.”
The bill is being sponsored by
the immediate past governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, who now represents
Yobe East Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
It was learnt that proponents
of this legislation believe that the Boko Haram suspects, who had inflicted
unprecedented torture on and killed thousands of innocent citizens,
particularly in the northern part of the country, should be made to enjoy what
beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta militants have been
enjoying.
Accordingly, the bill, the
first reading of which got automatic passage on the floor of the Senate
yesterday, seeks to give immediate legal backing for repentant insurgents to be
integrated into the society.
The main objectives are:
• to provide an avenue for
rehabilitating, de-radicalizing, educating and reintegrating the defectors,
repentant and detained members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, to make them
useful members of the society. It also aims at providing an avenue for
reconciliation and promoting national security; • to provide an-open-door and
encouragement for other members of the group who are still engaged in the
insurgency to abandon the group, especially in the face of the military
pressure;
• to give the government an
opportunity to derive insider-information about the insurgents for greater
understanding of their group and its inner workings;
• to enable government gain
greater understanding of the insurgents and enable the government to address
the immediate concerns of violence and study the needs of de-radicalization
effort to improve the process of de-radicalization; and
• to help disintegrate the
violent and poisonous ideology that the group spreads as the programme will
enable some convicted or suspected terrorists to express remorse over their
actions, repent and recant their violent ideology and re-enter mainstream
politics, religion and society.
Critics of the exercise pointed
out that whereas victims of the Boko Haram attacks had remained substantially
neglected in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps to the evils of rape,
hunger, malnutrition and other socio-economic vices, the Federal Government has
turned its attention to providing safe havens for those who maimed and killed.
Former Senate Majority Leader,
Ali Ndume, whose senatorial district has been the most affected by the Boko
Haram insurgents’ attacks, said last month that more work was required to be
done for the victims.
“About 1.7 million people have
been displaced in Borno alone. The value of the damage is about $9.6 billion in
Borno alone. About 60,000 children are orphaned. Only God knows how many
children are out of school, have no access to water, food and means of
livelihood. The humanitarian crisis that is coming after the war may be more
dangerous than the war itself. The insurgency is going into its 10th year. Some
children haven’t been in school in the last 10 years and we know what that
means,” he lamented.
The Defence Headquarters had,
in the heat of criticisms against the release and rehabilitation of Boko Haram
suspects, tried to justify the action.
The Acting Defence spokesman,
Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, told The Guardian last week that the initiative was
only targeted at low-risk Boko Haram members, who were not captured during
combat.
About 1,400 ‘repentant’ Boko
Haram suspects, who were in detention, were recently released and resettled into
the society by the military.
Nwachukwu explained: “In 2016,
the Federal Government initiated Operation Safe Corridor (OSC) to de-radicalise
repentant members of Boko Haram. It is not anything that is done haphazardly.
The target audiences are not those captured in combat. No!
“Those captured in combat are
processed for prosecution, but the ones that have not been ideologically
indoctrinated because they were conscripted, they were abducted, are the ones
being rehabilitated. They call them low-risk combatants. Those ones do not buy
into Boko Haram agenda; they were forced into it. These repentant members have
been assisting the military by providing intelligence on Boko Haram’s
activities.”
The Senate Committee on
Business and Rules has been directed to schedule the bill for general debate
after which it would be passed at second reading and third reading.
But, in separate reactions, the
Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere and Arewa Youth Consultative
Forum (AYCF) condemned the proposed amnesty for Boko Haram terrorists.
Both groups expressed shock
over the proposal, saying whosoever had proposed such a bill to grant amnesty
for criminals who killed, maimed, raped and destroyed innocent peoples lives
and property, and threw the country into jeopardy must be thoroughly
investigated and probably marked as enemies of the state.
An Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo
Adebanjo, described the development as an insult to Nigeria and scandalous to
the National Assembly. While he wondered what President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration was up to, Adebanjo asked: “How can anybody think of feeding
criminals and enemies of the state. This is impunity taken too far.”
Half a million tonnes of
electronic wastes dumped in Nigeria monthly - Don
4 hours ago
President Buhari. Photo:
TWITTER/NIGERIAGOV
• Senate moves to create agency
for insurgents’ welfare
• It’s impunity taken too far,
says Afenifere
• Arewa youths want sponsor of
bill investigated
• Why it is an invitation to
war, by HURIWA
A fresh crisis looms in the
country as stakeholders yesterday rejected a move by the Senate to establish an
agency to make life comfortable for ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorists
irrespective of their wanton destruction of lives and property.
Specifically, ignoring
persistent public outcry against the release of the suspected insurgents, the
Senate has begun a legislative process to grant amnesty to the terrorists.
This the lawmakers plan to
achieve by passing a bill for an Act tagged “National Agency for Education,
Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in
Nigeria 2020, SB. 340.”
The bill is being sponsored by
the immediate past governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, who now represents
Yobe East Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
It was learnt that proponents
of this legislation believe that the Boko Haram suspects, who had inflicted
unprecedented torture on and killed thousands of innocent citizens,
particularly in the northern part of the country, should be made to enjoy what
beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta militants have been
enjoying.
Accordingly, the bill, the
first reading of which got automatic passage on the floor of the Senate yesterday,
seeks to give immediate legal backing for repentant insurgents to be integrated
into the society.
The main objectives are:
• to provide an avenue for
rehabilitating, de-radicalizing, educating and reintegrating the defectors,
repentant and detained members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, to make them
useful members of the society. It also aims at providing an avenue for
reconciliation and promoting national security;
• to provide an-open-door and
encouragement for other members of the group who are still engaged in the
insurgency to abandon the group, especially in the face of the military
pressure;
• to give the government an
opportunity to derive insider-information about the insurgents for greater
understanding of their group and its inner workings;
• to enable government gain
greater understanding of the insurgents and enable the government to address
the immediate concerns of violence and study the needs of de-radicalization
effort to improve the process of de-radicalization; and
• to help disintegrate the
violent and poisonous ideology that the group spreads as the programme will
enable some convicted or suspected terrorists to express remorse over their
actions, repent and recant their violent ideology and re-enter mainstream
politics, religion and society.
Critics of the exercise pointed
out that whereas victims of the Boko Haram attacks had remained substantially
neglected in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps to the evils of rape,
hunger, malnutrition and other socio-economic vices, the Federal Government has
turned its attention to providing safe havens for those who maimed and killed.
Former Senate Majority Leader,
Ali Ndume, whose senatorial district has been the most affected by the Boko
Haram insurgents’ attacks, said last month that more work was required to be
done for the victims.
“About 1.7 million people have
been displaced in Borno alone. The value of the damage is about $9.6 billion in
Borno alone. About 60,000 children are orphaned. Only God knows how many
children are out of school, have no access to water, food and means of
livelihood. The humanitarian crisis that is coming after the war may be more
dangerous than the war itself. The insurgency is going into its 10th year. Some
children haven’t been in school in the last 10 years and we know what that
means,” he lamented.
The Defence Headquarters had,
in the heat of criticisms against the release and rehabilitation of Boko Haram
suspects, tried to justify the action.
The Acting Defence spokesman,
Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, told The Guardian last week that the initiative was
only targeted at low-risk Boko Haram members, who were not captured during
combat.
About 1,400 ‘repentant’ Boko
Haram suspects, who were in detention, were recently released and resettled
into the society by the military.
Nwachukwu explained: “In 2016,
the Federal Government initiated Operation Safe Corridor (OSC) to de-radicalise
repentant members of Boko Haram. It is not anything that is done haphazardly.
The target audience are not those captured in combat. No!
“Those captured in combat are
processed for prosecution, but the ones that have not been ideologically
indoctrinated because they were conscripted, they were abducted, are the ones
being rehabilitated. They call them low-risk combatants. Those ones do not buy
into Boko Haram agenda; they were forced into it. These repentant members have
been assisting the military by providing intelligence on Boko Haram’s
activities.”
The Senate Committee on
Business and Rules has been directed to schedule the bill for general debate
after which it would be passed at second reading and third reading.
But, in separate reactions, the
Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere and Arewa Youth Consultative
Forum (AYCF) condemned the proposed amnesty for Boko Haram terrorists.
Both groups expressed shock
over the proposal, saying whosoever had proposed such a bill to grant amnesty
for criminals who killed, maimed, raped and destroyed innocent peoples lives
and property, and threw the country into jeopardy must be thoroughly
investigated and probably marked as enemies of the state.
An Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo
Adebanjo, described the development as an insult to Nigeria and scandalous to
the National Assembly. While he wondered what President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration was up to, Adebanjo asked: “How can anybody think of feeding
criminals and enemies of the state. This is impunity taken too far.”
President of AYCF, Alhaji
Yerima Shettima said: “The proposal is stupid and the sponsor of such a bill
needs to be thoroughly investigated.
“If government cannot cater for
the direct victims of the Boko Haram suspects or address a situation where the
soldiers that are risking their lives to contain the insurgents are crying over
poor welfare package and the Senate is debating how to grant amnesty to the
suspects, it speaks a lot about the characters ruling us. Nigerians must be
ready to interrogate the intention of the person that sponsored such a bill?”
Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd) wondered
why the Boko Haram suspects would be the major concern of the senators “when
the victims of their actions and deeds are still suffering and thousands are
dead.”
He also wondered what the
government was doing to help the embattled military officials that have been
fighting the insurgents over the years.
Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) rejected the proposed bill and warned that the
move to legislate outright pardon of armed terrorists under the guise of
de-radicalisation programme could result in the civil war in the short, medium
or long term.
In a statement issued yesterday
in Abuja by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, he said that the bill
was unconstitutional and offended all relevant anti-terrorism laws of the
federation.
“Let us form the HURIWA caution
the section of the national legislators who are actively conniving with armed
terrorists to introduce a satanic legislation that will overlook the
mind-boggling crimes of genocides committed by terrorists and the killings of
over 30,000 innocent Nigerians in the last ten years with the view to appease
terrorists even when the victims of terrorism are scattered in different
internally displaced camps in Nigeria and are external refugees in so many
nearby countries.
Why president enlarged NDDC
interim management committee, by Akpabio
8 hours ago
COVID-19: Cured cases surpasses
new confirmed cases – Embassy
5 hours ago
Half a million tonnes of
electronic wastes dumped in Nigeria monthly - Don
4 hours ago
President Buhari. Photo:
TWITTER/NIGERIAGOV
• Senate moves to create agency
for insurgents’ welfare
• It’s impunity taken too far,
says Afenifere
• Arewa youths want sponsor of
bill investigated
• Why it is an invitation to
war, by HURIWA
A fresh crisis looms in the
country as stakeholders yesterday rejected a move by the Senate to establish an
agency to make life comfortable for ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorists
irrespective of their wanton destruction of lives and property.
Specifically, ignoring
persistent public outcry against the release of the suspected insurgents, the
Senate has begun a legislative process to grant amnesty to the terrorists.
This the lawmakers plan to
achieve by passing a bill for an Act tagged “National Agency for Education,
Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in
Nigeria 2020, SB. 340.”
The bill is being sponsored by
the immediate past governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, who now represents
Yobe East Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
It was learnt that proponents
of this legislation believe that the Boko Haram suspects, who had inflicted
unprecedented torture on and killed thousands of innocent citizens,
particularly in the northern part of the country, should be made to enjoy what
beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta militants have been
enjoying.
Accordingly, the bill, the
first reading of which got automatic passage on the floor of the Senate
yesterday, seeks to give immediate legal backing for repentant insurgents to be
integrated into the society.
The main objectives are:
• to provide an avenue for
rehabilitating, de-radicalizing, educating and reintegrating the defectors,
repentant and detained members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, to make them
useful members of the society. It also aims at providing an avenue for
reconciliation and promoting national security;
• to provide an-open-door and
encouragement for other members of the group who are still engaged in the
insurgency to abandon the group, especially in the face of the military
pressure;
• to give the government an
opportunity to derive insider-information about the insurgents for greater
understanding of their group and its inner workings;
• to enable government gain
greater understanding of the insurgents and enable the government to address
the immediate concerns of violence and study the needs of de-radicalization
effort to improve the process of de-radicalization; and
• to help disintegrate the
violent and poisonous ideology that the group spreads as the programme will
enable some convicted or suspected terrorists to express remorse over their
actions, repent and recant their violent ideology and re-enter mainstream
politics, religion and society.
Critics of the exercise pointed
out that whereas victims of the Boko Haram attacks had remained substantially
neglected in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps to the evils of rape,
hunger, malnutrition and other socio-economic vices, the Federal Government has
turned its attention to providing safe havens for those who maimed and killed.
Former Senate Majority Leader,
Ali Ndume, whose senatorial district has been the most affected by the Boko
Haram insurgents’ attacks, said last month that more work was required to be
done for the victims.
“About 1.7 million people have
been displaced in Borno alone. The value of the damage is about $9.6 billion in
Borno alone. About 60,000 children are orphaned. Only God knows how many
children are out of school, have no access to water, food and means of
livelihood. The humanitarian crisis that is coming after the war may be more
dangerous than the war itself. The insurgency is going into its 10th year. Some
children haven’t been in school in the last 10 years and we know what that
means,” he lamented.
The Defence Headquarters had,
in the heat of criticisms against the release and rehabilitation of Boko Haram
suspects, tried to justify the action.
The Acting Defence spokesman,
Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, told The Guardian last week that the initiative was
only targeted at low-risk Boko Haram members, who were not captured during
combat.
About 1,400 ‘repentant’ Boko
Haram suspects, who were in detention, were recently released and resettled
into the society by the military.
Nwachukwu explained: “In 2016,
the Federal Government initiated Operation Safe Corridor (OSC) to de-radicalise
repentant members of Boko Haram. It is not anything that is done haphazardly.
The target audience are not those captured in combat. No!
“Those captured in combat are
processed for prosecution, but the ones that have not been ideologically
indoctrinated because they were conscripted, they were abducted, are the ones
being rehabilitated. They call them low-risk combatants. Those ones do not buy
into Boko Haram agenda; they were forced into it. These repentant members have
been assisting the military by providing intelligence on Boko Haram’s
activities.”
The Senate Committee on
Business and Rules has been directed to schedule the bill for general debate
after which it would be passed at second reading and third reading.
But, in separate reactions, the
Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere and Arewa Youth Consultative
Forum (AYCF) condemned the proposed amnesty for Boko Haram terrorists.
Both groups expressed shock
over the proposal, saying whosoever had proposed such a bill to grant amnesty
for criminals who killed, maimed, raped and destroyed innocent peoples lives
and property, and threw the country into jeopardy must be thoroughly investigated
and probably marked as enemies of the state.
An Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo
Adebanjo, described the development as an insult to Nigeria and scandalous to
the National Assembly. While he wondered what President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration was up to, Adebanjo asked: “How can anybody think of feeding
criminals and enemies of the state. This is impunity taken too far.”
President of AYCF, Alhaji
Yerima Shettima said: “The proposal is stupid and the sponsor of such a bill
needs to be thoroughly investigated.
“If government cannot cater for
the direct victims of the Boko Haram suspects or address a situation where the
soldiers that are risking their lives to contain the insurgents are crying over
poor welfare package and the Senate is debating how to grant amnesty to the
suspects, it speaks a lot about the characters ruling us. Nigerians must be
ready to interrogate the intention of the person that sponsored such a bill?”
Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd) wondered
why the Boko Haram suspects would be the major concern of the senators “when
the victims of their actions and deeds are still suffering and thousands are
dead.”
He also wondered what the
government was doing to help the embattled military officials that have been
fighting the insurgents over the years.
Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) rejected the proposed bill and warned that the
move to legislate outright pardon of armed terrorists under the guise of
de-radicalisation programme could result in the civil war in the short, medium
or long term.
In a statement issued yesterday
in Abuja by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, he said that the bill
was unconstitutional and offended all relevant anti-terrorism laws of the
federation.
“Let us form the HURIWA caution
the section of the national legislators who are actively conniving with armed
terrorists to introduce a satanic legislation that will overlook the
mind-boggling crimes of genocides committed by terrorists and the killings of
over 30,000 innocent Nigerians in the last ten years with the view to appease
terrorists even when the victims of terrorism are scattered in different
internally displaced camps in Nigeria and are external refugees in so many
nearby countries.
“If this bill to legalise the
freeing of arrested terror suspects under any guise succeeds, then the nation
should be prepared for the consequences of their unconstitutional action
because the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of the terrorists attacks
in the last decade will definitely not fold their hands whilst those who killed
their loved ones are pardoned through roguish means by the passage of this
criminally-minded bill that is meant to legalize mass murder.
“This bill before the senate is
not only satanic and unconstitutional, but will paint the picture of a rogue
nation because in all civilizations, those who declare war against innocent
citizens and participate in genocide are rounded up and prosecuted and made to
face the full weight of the law.
Half a million tonnes of
electronic wastes dumped in Nigeria monthly - Don
4 hours ago
President Buhari. Photo:
TWITTER/NIGERIAGOV
• Senate moves to create agency
for insurgents’ welfare
• It’s impunity taken too far,
says Afenifere
• Arewa youths want sponsor of
bill investigated
• Why it is an invitation to
war, by HURIWA
A fresh crisis looms in the
country as stakeholders yesterday rejected a move by the Senate to establish an
agency to make life comfortable for ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorists
irrespective of their wanton destruction of lives and property.
Specifically, ignoring
persistent public outcry against the release of the suspected insurgents, the
Senate has begun a legislative process to grant amnesty to the terrorists.
This the lawmakers plan to
achieve by passing a bill for an Act tagged “National Agency for Education,
Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in
Nigeria 2020, SB. 340.”
The bill is being sponsored by
the immediate past governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, who now represents
Yobe East Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
It was learnt that proponents
of this legislation believe that the Boko Haram suspects, who had inflicted
unprecedented torture on and killed thousands of innocent citizens,
particularly in the northern part of the country, should be made to enjoy what
beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta militants have been
enjoying.
Accordingly, the bill, the
first reading of which got automatic passage on the floor of the Senate
yesterday, seeks to give immediate legal backing for repentant insurgents to be
integrated into the society.
The main objectives are:
• to provide an avenue for
rehabilitating, de-radicalizing, educating and reintegrating the defectors,
repentant and detained members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, to make them
useful members of the society. It also aims at providing an avenue for
reconciliation and promoting national security;
• to provide an-open-door and
encouragement for other members of the group who are still engaged in the
insurgency to abandon the group, especially in the face of the military
pressure;
• to give the government an
opportunity to derive insider-information about the insurgents for greater
understanding of their group and its inner workings;
• to enable government gain
greater understanding of the insurgents and enable the government to address
the immediate concerns of violence and study the needs of de-radicalization
effort to improve the process of de-radicalization; and
• to help disintegrate the
violent and poisonous ideology that the group spreads as the programme will
enable some convicted or suspected terrorists to express remorse over their
actions, repent and recant their violent ideology and re-enter mainstream
politics, religion and society.
Critics of the exercise pointed
out that whereas victims of the Boko Haram attacks had remained substantially
neglected in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps to the evils of rape,
hunger, malnutrition and other socio-economic vices, the Federal Government has
turned its attention to providing safe havens for those who maimed and killed.
Former Senate Majority Leader,
Ali Ndume, whose senatorial district has been the most affected by the Boko
Haram insurgents’ attacks, said last month that more work was required to be
done for the victims.
“About 1.7 million people have
been displaced in Borno alone. The value of the damage is about $9.6 billion in
Borno alone. About 60,000 children are orphaned. Only God knows how many
children are out of school, have no access to water, food and means of
livelihood. The humanitarian crisis that is coming after the war may be more
dangerous than the war itself. The insurgency is going into its 10th year. Some
children haven’t been in school in the last 10 years and we know what that
means,” he lamented.
The Defence Headquarters had,
in the heat of criticisms against the release and rehabilitation of Boko Haram
suspects, tried to justify the action.
The Acting Defence spokesman,
Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, told The Guardian last week that the initiative was
only targeted at low-risk Boko Haram members, who were not captured during
combat.
About 1,400 ‘repentant’ Boko
Haram suspects, who were in detention, were recently released and resettled
into the society by the military.
Nwachukwu explained: “In 2016,
the Federal Government initiated Operation Safe Corridor (OSC) to de-radicalise
repentant members of Boko Haram. It is not anything that is done haphazardly.
The target audience are not those captured in combat. No!
“Those captured in combat are
processed for prosecution, but the ones that have not been ideologically
indoctrinated because they were conscripted, they were abducted, are the ones
being rehabilitated. They call them low-risk combatants. Those ones do not buy
into Boko Haram agenda; they were forced into it. These repentant members have
been assisting the military by providing intelligence on Boko Haram’s
activities.”
The Senate Committee on
Business and Rules has been directed to schedule the bill for general debate
after which it would be passed at second reading and third reading.
But, in separate reactions, the
Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere and Arewa Youth Consultative
Forum (AYCF) condemned the proposed amnesty for Boko Haram terrorists.
Both groups expressed shock
over the proposal, saying whosoever had proposed such a bill to grant amnesty
for criminals who killed, maimed, raped and destroyed innocent peoples lives
and property, and threw the country into jeopardy must be thoroughly investigated
and probably marked as enemies of the state.
An Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo
Adebanjo, described the development as an insult to Nigeria and scandalous to
the National Assembly. While he wondered what President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration was up to, Adebanjo asked: “How can anybody think of feeding
criminals and enemies of the state. This is impunity taken too far.”
President of AYCF, Alhaji
Yerima Shettima said: “The proposal is stupid and the sponsor of such a bill
needs to be thoroughly investigated.
“If government cannot cater for
the direct victims of the Boko Haram suspects or address a situation where the
soldiers that are risking their lives to contain the insurgents are crying over
poor welfare package and the Senate is debating how to grant amnesty to the
suspects, it speaks a lot about the characters ruling us. Nigerians must be
ready to interrogate the intention of the person that sponsored such a bill?”
Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd) wondered
why the Boko Haram suspects would be the major concern of the senators “when
the victims of their actions and deeds are still suffering and thousands are
dead.”
He also wondered what the
government was doing to help the embattled military officials that have been
fighting the insurgents over the years.
Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) rejected the proposed bill and warned that the
move to legislate outright pardon of armed terrorists under the guise of
de-radicalisation programme could result in the civil war in the short, medium
or long term.
In a statement issued yesterday
in Abuja by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, he said that the bill
was unconstitutional and offended all relevant anti-terrorism laws of the
federation.
“Let us form the HURIWA caution
the section of the national legislators who are actively conniving with armed
terrorists to introduce a satanic legislation that will overlook the
mind-boggling crimes of genocides committed by terrorists and the killings of
over 30,000 innocent Nigerians in the last ten years with the view to appease
terrorists even when the victims of terrorism are scattered in different
internally displaced camps in Nigeria and are external refugees in so many
nearby countries.
“If this bill to legalise the
freeing of arrested terror suspects under any guise succeeds, then the nation
should be prepared for the consequences of their unconstitutional action
because the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of the terrorists attacks
in the last decade will definitely not fold their hands whilst those who killed
their loved ones are pardoned through roguish means by the passage of this
criminally-minded bill that is meant to legalize mass murder.
“This bill before the senate is
not only satanic and unconstitutional, but will paint the picture of a rogue
nation because in all civilizations, those who declare war against innocent
citizens and participate in genocide are rounded up and prosecuted and made to
face the full weight of the law.
“History is replete with a
plethora of trials of persons who have joined terror gangs and carried out mass
killings. The plot by the National Assembly to, therefore, permit the wanton
defecation of the constitution of Nigeria by forgiving mass murderers must
never be allowed to succeed,” HURIWA stated.
The human rights group urged
the government to engage in a law-based war by enforcing anti-terrorism laws,
stressing that section 1A (4) of the Terrorism Prevention Act (TPA) (as
amended) empowers “the law enforcement agencies” to “enforce all laws and regulations
on counter-terrorism in Nigeria”.
It added that prior to the TPA,
section 46 of the EFCC Act 2004 defines “terrorism” to mean a violation of the
criminal code or the penal code and with likelihood of endangering life,
integrity or freedom, or causing serious injury or death with the intent to
force the person(s) or body or government to do or not to do certain things or
disrupt and includes financing or aiding terrorism. The punishment for the
crime by Section 15 of the EFCC Act is imprisonment for life.”
“Nations which have achieved
stability and national security are those which have elevated law above
political, religious, ethnic sentiments. The present Federal Government must be
compelled to advocate national security on the basis of respect of not only
individual rights but also the rule of law, but definitely not the appeasement
of terrorists.”
A source close to one of the
commissions overseeing the affairs of victims of insurgency in the north
disclosed to The Guardian that the proposal was not new as “the rehabilitation
and reintegration process have been on over a while.”
He also disclosed that many of
the northern elite, especially those whose families, friends and associates had
fallen victims of Boko Haram insurgency, were shocked by the proposed amnesty.
“There is this apprehension
over government’s haste to legalise the amnesty proposal to common Boko Haram
criminals who have killed, raped and destroyed many lives and property,” noted.
The source said that Nigerians
should further interrogate if the ultimate agenda is not to finally integrate
the Boko Haram suspects into the military. “Nigeria is in a terrible situation,”
he said.
Meanwhile, the General
Secretary of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Dr. Alfred Mulade, said (via
phone): “It is a keg of gun powder waiting to explode. Few days ago the
military said they have de-radicalised over 608 Boko Haram repentants and the
military have also said the Boko Haram has been decimated. Where do we still
have this whole large number that they are planning to create special commission
and use public funds for?
“We were told that Boko Haram
had been technically defeated, where do we still have this large number that
you want commit public funds to de-radicalise?
“It is another means by which
they might infiltrate into the civil society and cause more havoc. Government
should discourage that kind of arrangement and stop that bill from passing
through.”
