VP Osinbajo prays for ‘repentant’ Boko Haram fighters, assures them of better life…

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says repentant Boko Haram insurgents will receive adequate care and support from the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking at the Hajj Camp in Maiduguri Thursday during his working visit, Mr Osinbajo assured the surrendered militias that the Buhari regime will provide them means of livelihood and resettle their families.

“I am the chairman of the Presidential Committee and His Excellency Governor Umara Zulum is the vice chairman of the committee,” Mr Osinbajo said. “We will be working with you and the state government and other donor agencies and friends to ensure that we are able to provide you with a means of not just income but a place where you can settle down with your families and do your own work and do your own business.

The vice president, a Christian preacher then offered prayers to the former Boko Haram members.

“God bless you, God bless you and you will be well,” Mr Osinbajo said. “We will make sure that we take care of you the best way we can by God grace.”

Since Boko Haram terrorists took up arms against Nigeria over a decade ago, over two million Nigerians have been displaced.

In 2016, the Nigerian government established “Operation Safe Corridor” with the mandate to deradicalise and rehabilitate repentant Boko Haram fighters.

The programme which has seen many self-confessed repentant Boko Haram militias rehabilitated and freed, has been widely criticised and appraised as ineffective as many of the freed insurgents reunite with the terrorist organisation after some time.

Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, who twice escaped attacks from the insurgents, had said the rehabilitation and deradicalisation program is not working as those rehabilitated return to join their group. He, however, later recanted.

In his 2021 Easter homily, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Hassan Mathew Kukah, berated the regime of Mr Buhari for wasting billions on rehabilitation of insurgents who have continued to wreak havoc on the country on many fronts.