FAST DOWNLOAD
Traditional leaders in Borno State have made a plea to their communities, urging them to embrace repentant insurgents seeking reintegration into society.
This call comes amid the challenging task of integrating over 160,000 former Boko Haram members back into their home communities, a process initiated by the Borno State government nearly three years ag
However, the acceptance of these repentant insurgents has become a formidable obstacle for the integration program, particularly due to the reluctance of many communities and individuals who have suffered losses at the hands of Boko Haram.
“We now beg people to please accept the repentant insurgents as their peace-loving kinsmen to enable us as communities, and as a state, to break the cycle of violence that has troubled our state for about 13 years now,” a traditional ruler, Alhaji Abba Kyari Terab, disclosed in Maiduguri on Monday, April 8.
Terab, who is a District Head in Jere Local Government Area of the state, spoke as the representative of traditional rulers at the end of an event organized by a Maiduguri-based NGO, Allamin Foundation for Peace and Development.
“Community acceptance of the repentant insurgents is key to their full integration in their home communities,” he maintained, adding, “That is why, to achieve this, we resorted to mounting enlightenment campaigns to plead with our communities to accept the repentant insurgents as their kinsmen.”
Terab added, “We have discussed extensively with our religious leaders and community leaders and also pleaded with them to please accept the repentant insurgents to facilitate breaking the circle of violence.”
He observed that so long as communities in the state do not give the repentant insurgents the opportunity to get fully integrated among them, the Boko Haram violence would continue.
“Through our interactions with most of them, they told us that they regretted joining Boko Haram, and that most of those still in the bush are willing to come back home but for the fear of rejection by the society and vengeance by offended communities,” Terab said.