By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The 1,081 Boko Haram members who recently claimed to have repented, won’t be charged to court or punished for their crimes. Instead, they will be ‘rehabilitated’ to become normal members of society, according to the terms of their surrender.
Photos of the terrorists have been circulating online, brandishing placards that bear the inscription: ‘Nigerians please forgive us,’ an idea that appears to have been contrived by their handlers.
More worrisome is the fear that after a while, the ‘repentant’ terrorists will become bandits and move to the more lucrative crime of mass kidnappings of school children. This is what Nigerians found to be shocking and unacceptable.
“I should forgive them for making me a young widow?” the wife of Lt Col Sakaba who was murdered by the terrorists asked.
The husband of the young widow was killed by Boko Haram members in 2018, with 43 other soldiers during an attack on 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele, Guzamala Local Government Area of Borno State.
She tweeted at the Nigerian Army after seeing her husband’s employer giving the killers red carpet treatment instead of dispensing justice to them.
She said: “@hqnigerianarmy it will never be well with all of you. I should forgive them for making me a young widow, I should forgive them for killing my husband, his brother and his mom!
“I should forgive them for making me seek shelter in another country! I should forgive them for making many women widows and kids fatherless. I should forgive them for you not paying what is my late husband’s due.
“I should forgive them for all their atrocities done to my family. You shot my husband dead in his office that u pretended to be a friendly force just because he refused to be part of your plots. Time for dragging now.”
@nonso_nnamani also tweeted: “The idea that Boko Haram members can simply surrender is dangerous. Plus, it is a lazy way to fight terrorism. It seems the call for secession is a more serious crime than murdering, kidnapping and robbing villages dry.”
@jacksonpbn said: “Boko Haram Terrorists would kill millions, destroy properties, shoot down fighter jets, surrender and then get a hug, employment into the military and even guaranteed the Presidency. But when armless IPOB members protest and demand secession, they are rounded up and killed.”
@OloriFirstlady added: “It is only in Nigeria they free terrorists and Boko Haram members that have killed thousands of soldiers, almost million civilians killed by them, after several years of killing, they will surrender and go free of charge! May it never be well with Nigeria leaders.”
