Nigeria’s
emergency management agency, the National Emergency Management Agency,
NEMA, on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 presented food and non-food items to
800 repentant Boko Haram terrorists.
The items were handed to the military
for “Operation Safe Corridor Programme” meant to “de-radicalise,
rehabilitate and reintegrate the insurgents”.
According to the agency, the gesture was to fast track peace process in the North East.
The director general of NEMA, Mr. Sani
Sidi, who presented the items in Gombe State, said the agency would
continue to play its role in the programme by providing regular support
of food and non-food items for the upkeep of the ex-terrorists.
Sidi, in a statement issued by a
spokesperson of NEMA, Sani Datti, in Abuja on Tuesday, said, “The
initiative, which is in line with international best practices allowed
those engaged in the fighting to voluntarily surrender and embrace peace
so that they can undergo rehabilitation.”
He stated that items to be released for
this purpose every three months include 410 bags of rice, 400 bags of
beans, 200 bags of millet, 200 bags of sorghum, 750 cartons of
spaghetti, 50 cartons of Maggi cubes and 810 cartons tomato paste.
Others are 101 vegetable oil in 20 litre
kegs, 101 palm oil in 20 litre kegs, 50 bags of salt, 100 bags of
sugar, 420 cartons of milk and 420 cartons of milo chocolate.
The non-food items include 800 pieces of
mattress, 500 hundred pieces of blanket, 500 pieces of nylon mats, 1000
plastic buckets, 1000 plastic spoons, 1000 plastic cups, 1000 plastic
plates, 1000 plastic pairs of slippers, 2000 men’s wear, 63 cartons of
bath soap and 1000 bath towels.
Receiving the items, the Coordinator of
Operation Safe Corridor, Brigadier-General, Bamidele Shafa, said the
initiative was designed to de-radicalise, rehabilitate and re-integrate
willing and repented Boko Haram insurgents who had come out to surrender
to the military and believing that it would quicken the peace process
in the North East.
“Between September last year and
February this year a good number of Boko haram insurgents have come out
to surrender,” he added.
Shafa thanked the Gombe State government for providing the location and giving them all the necessary support.
It is reported that about 11 agencies of the Federal Government are directly involved in the Operation Safe Corridor programme
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