Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, on Friday, disclosed that about 51,828 Boko Haram fighters surrendered to the Federal Government between July 2021 and May 2022.
Irabor, who disclosed this while delivering a lecture: The 7th Founders’ Day of the Edo University, Uzairue, Edo State, said 13,360 of the surrendered Boko Haram were fighters.
“From July 2021 to May 2022 alone, no fewer than 51,828 Boko Haram and their family members have surrendered, out of which 13,360 are fighters,” Irabor said.
He further disclosed that 1,543 repentant terrorists had graduated from Mallam Sidi camp between 2016 and 2022, while 1,935 have been released from the camp in Bulumkutu.
The CDS added that the military have recorded many successes in the fight against terrorism as terrorists were being decimated and dislodged from their strongholds.
But the CDS said despite the modest successes recorded by Operation Safe Corridor in the fight against crime, the programme still faced a lot of challenges.
He listed some of the challenges to include the lack of specialised training experts and inadequate physical structure, inadequate collaboration and coordination, absence of appropriate legislation on reintegration, low agency and international participation as well as ineffective monitoring system.
Irabor, however, identified the way forward to include train-the-trainers programme and establishment of special fund for Deradicalisation, Reintegration and Reorientation (DRR), establishment of a national commission for DRR, enacting of a DRR Act, building of strategic partnerships and adoption of a whole-of-society approach to monitoring.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Emmanuel Aluyor, said Gen. Irabor was chosen to speak at the institution’s 7th Founders’ Day on the lecture titled, “National Defence Policy and the Transitional Justice Approach in the War Against Insurgency in Nigeria,” for the university community on the role of the Nigerian Army in tackling insurgency in the country.
