As Nigeria battles with insurgency in the North-East, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, has said that the deradicalisation of repentant criminals are working well.
The Operation Safe Corridor is a programme introduced under former President Muhammadu Buhari. It has run for several years and seen no fewer than 4,000 ex-Boko Haram members go through the programme.
Speaking on Channels Television’s special broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 25th Democracy Day in Abuja, the CDS said the military’s strategy in combating terrorism and other crimes is yielding the positive results.
“It is working very well. I was the commander when it started, we were the ones that started it and every process that we did, we worked together with the state because the state had the authority on ground,” he said.
“Before it started and they were willing to surrender, the states were the ones that took the mantle and we followed up. Everyone that surrendered came first to the security forces that were closest to them. They were disarmed, we got the DSS to profile them.
“The state government provides the administration of those people and we took them to their camps. We were able to separate them and realised that not all of them were combatant. Some were forced, some were used as labourers.
“The main ones that were the actual operators were kept separately, working together with the victims.”
Surrender
During the show, Musa said the Nigeria military is winning the war against Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists in the country, stressing that more than 120,000 terrorists have surrendered to troops in the theatre of operations in the North-East.
According to him, he was in charge of Operation Hadin Kai for 19 months, and during the period he held sway, no fewer than 70,000 terrorists dumped terrorism to embrace a new life.
“I was the theatre commander Operation Hadin Kai for 19 months. By the time I left there, we had over 75,000 (terrorists) that have surrendered,” he said.
“Now we have over 120,000 to tell you that we are succeeding. For us to know that it is total, one of the areas where we have challenge is the area of good governance.”