The Nigerian military has revealed that about 800 former Boko Haram members are being deradicalized.
According to the military, those being deradicalized had earlier surrendered.
Disclosing this, the Defence Headquarters, DHQ, on Monday said they will be deradicalized for onward re-integration into the society.
The Chief of Defence, Operations, Maj.-Gen. Emeka Onumajuru, disclosed this during Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme.
Onumajuru said one year is enough time to re-orient and reintegrate the ex-terrorists into the larger society.
The spokesman said 129,000 Boko Haram fighters have been arrested so far, but only 800 former fighters were carefully selected to participate in the rehabilitation and reintegration project.
According to Onumajuru: “To get the numbers right, right now, (we have) about 129,000 surrendered BH (Boko Haram) members and their families.
“We are a professional army and when you are in combat and an opponent surrenders, then you take him and let the legal processes take its natural course.
“Right now, some of them are detention facilities, some of them are in Kainji, and there is a special court that goes through all of them. Those that were found culpable face the books and those that are going to be deradicalised go through the process and this takes about a year.
“The number taken in is not huge. As I said, we have 129,000 BH members and families. It doesn’t mean the 129,000 are going through the programme.
“The people going through the programme right now are about 800 – in batches. Those 800 are people that have been sieved through the entire legal process before they are now brought to the centre.”
