N’Assembly has to approve repentant terrorists’ amnesty- Ndume
The Chairman, Senate Committee on the Army, Senator Ali Ndume, has said the President, Muhammadu Buhari, or any security agency in Nigeria, cannot unilaterally grant blanket amnesty to repentant Boko Haram terrorists without the approval of the National Assembly.
While reacting to a report, Ndume stated that certain security agencies in the country had started granting secret amnesty to top Boko Haram commanders, accompanied with huge financial empowerment.
Ndume, who is representing Borno South Senatorial District in the Senate, clarified that none of the repentant terrorists have been reintegrated into the society contrary to media reports.
He said the military authorities had also not recruited any of the repentant terrorists into the Nigerian Army.
Rather, he said, they (repentant insurgents) were presently being treated as prisoners of war, with the security agencies carrying out their profiling while some of them with terrible cases had been sent to prison.
He condemned bandits’ attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna, describing it as unfortunate, even as he assured Nigerians that the military authorities would soon arrest the criminals and set their captives free.
Ndume disclosed that the presidency and the Borno State Government had started a comprehensive resettlement plans for victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.
The lawmaker, however, challenged the military authorities to ensure a deliberate arrangement that would make the soldiers to keep watch over one another so as to expose the insider who could be giving information to the terrorists.
He expressed worry that the President was not addressing Nigerians despite the fears being entertained by the people over the worsening security crises across the country.
He said, “I am just worried that the President is not talking to Nigerians. In a situation like this, silence is not golden. If the US president could be addressing Americans everyday on the issue of Afghanistan, i also expect President Muhammadu Buhari to also be addressing Nigerians either daily, weekly, or fortnightly on the security situation across Nigeria.
“The usual statement from his media aides are not the solution. The President should create a situation room to brief Nigerians on the current situation and what his government is doing about it. Such action would ally the fears of the people”.
