Mr. Femi Adesina
| credits: sunnewsonline.com
The
Head of the Countering Violent Extremism Department in the Office of
the National Security Adviser, Dr. Fatima Akilu, told President
Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday that no fewer than 22 women and girls
recruited as suicide bombers by members of the Boko Haram sect are now
undergoing rehabilitation under the programme.
She said the female trained as suicide
bombers by the sect were being rehabilitated after voluntarily embracing
the agency’s de-radicalisation programme.
A statement by the Special Adviser to
the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, quoted Akilu as
speaking during a meeting she had with Buhari at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja, to brief him of the department’s activities.
One of the objectives of the CVE is to
reform terrorists and prevent others from joining terrorist
organisations and violent sects.
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Akilu
told the President that the programme’s non-military approach was
running concurrently with the armed onslaught against insurgents in the
country.
She said so far, the CVE had
rehabilitated no fewer than 305 victims of terrorism rescued from the
Sambisa Forest by the Nigerian military.
She told the President that a National
Security Corridor Programme had been created to provide a safe route for
those who wish to dump their membership of Boko Haram voluntarily and
that 47 erstwhile members of the group had embraced the programme.
Buhari applauded steps being taken by
the Office of the NSA and other agencies of government to rehabilitate
victims of terrorism and violent extremism in Nigeria.
He promised that the Federal Government
would continue to do its best to ensure that victims of Boko Haram’s
atrocities receive necessary support, even as it strives to rid the
country of terrorism and insurgency in the shortest possible time.
Meanwhile, governors of north-eastern
states on Tuesday suggested a tripartite approach to handling victims of
the Boko Haram insurgency.
The governors rose from an emergency
meeting held at the Bauchi State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, to
request that the Federal Government and the nation’s development
partners expedite action towards the resettlement and reintegration of
victims of the insurgency.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues
after the meeting, the Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Ibrahim
Dankwambo, said, “We agreed that the North-East Regional Development
Plan Committee should liaise with DFID to establish an institutional
frame work for the region.”
The governors suggested that apart from
what the various state governments were doing on their own for
themselves and the assistance they were rendering to one another, it
would help for the Federal Government and development partners to
increase their tempo of activities.
Dankwambo further explained that he and
his colleagues approved that the regional committee should engage and
explore areas of cooperation with international development partners and
governors of the six states in the zone.
The governors had also received the
report of the North-East Transformation Strategy, tagged; “Development
Agenda” which is a follow-up to the last year’s North-East Economic
Forum.
They also approved the setting up of a secretariat in Bauchi State and a liaison office in Abuja.
The governors, who announced plans to
see the President on the matter soon, also appealed to the Federal
Government to accord the challenges facing the North-East top priority
in order to restore the region’s economy which has been ravaged by the
activities of the insurgents.
