The Joint Investigation Centre (JIC) has wrapped up investigations on “1450 terrorists on the level of their involvement” and says it’s time to move forward with their trial. But that process is being held back.
The Centre’s Acting Commander, Colonel AU Ahmed, represented by Captain Olugbenga Adeniyi, spoke to journalists about the current state of things.
He explained that the 1,450 individuals are part of “the 1,877 terrorists being investigated at the Centre for their involvement in terrorism activities.”
According to him, once investigations are complete, suspects are sorted into categories.
“After the investigation, the Complex Casework Group (CCG) carried out the review of the investigation reports and offered the necessary legal advice.”
Based on that, detainees are divided into three groups.
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“Those recommended for prosecution are taken to Giwa Project in Kainji, those for rehabilitation are moved to Op SAFE CORRIDOR, and those for reintegration are handed over to the Borno State Government.”
Despite completing their part of the work, the Centre is facing serious issues. Ahmed pointed to the difficulty in accessing witnesses, many of whom are either unwilling to testify or unreachable due to security challenges at the crime scenes.
“The Centre faces difficulty in securing most of the witnesses that would have aided the investigations. This is partly due to lack of accessibility by own investigators to most of the areas of arrest or crime scene, unwillingness of some witnesses to come forward and testify.”
He also stressed that “the delay in prosecution of most of the suspects whose investigations have been completed also poses a great challenge to the Centre.”
Meanwhile, Borno State is continuing its reintegration programme for ex-terrorists. Just last month, 230 repentant terrorists went through the process as part of the ongoing effort.