The bill seeks, among other things, to enable some convicted or suspected terrorists express remorse over their actions, repent and recant their violent ideology and re-enter mainstream politics, religion and society.
Reactions have continue to trail the bill seeking to create an agency that would cater for repentant Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria.
The bill, sponsored by Yobe lawmaker, Senator Ibrahim Gaidam on Thursday, February 20, 2020, has scaled first reading at the upper chamber.
The bill is tagged “National Agency for Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria 2020, SB. 340.”
The proposed legislation, seeks among other things, to give immediate legal backing for repentant insurgents to be integrated into the society.
Here are five main objectives the proposed bill seeks to achieve if passed into law;
- to provide an avenue for rehabilitating, de-radicalizing, educating and reintegrating the defectors, repentant and detained members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, to make them useful members of the society. It also aims at providing an avenue for reconciliation and promoting national security;
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to provide an-open-door and encouragement for other members of the group who are still engaged in the insurgency to abandon the group, especially in the face of the military pressure;
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to give the government an opportunity to derive insider-information about the insurgents for greater understanding of their group and its inner workings;
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to enable government gain greater understanding of the insurgents and enable the government to address the immediate concerns of violence and study the needs of de-radicalization effort to improve the process of de-radicalization; and
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to help disintegrate the violent and poisonous ideology that the group spreads as the programme will enable some convicted or suspected terrorists to express remorse over their actions, repent and recant their violent ideology and re-enter mainstream politics, religion and society.
It was learnt that proponents of this legislation believe that the Boko Haram suspects should be made to enjoy what beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta Militants have been getting.
