No fewer than 52 repentant Boko Haram members were over the weekend brought to Gombe for a sixteen weeks rehabilitation, de-radicalization as well as re-integration and re-insertion programme.
Major General Bamidele Shafa, Coordinator, Operation Safe Corridor, while receiving them into the camp on Saturday said those that arrived were the second batch to go through the process.
He said the ex-combatants or clients as they are now called, would be in the camp for 16 weeks for the De-radicalization, Rehabilitation and Re-integration/Re-insertion (DRR) process which would be undertaken in collaboration with 11 Federal Government Agencies.
According to him, the pilot batch of the programme which is under the Operation Safe Corridor initiative of the Federal Government graduated six of the ex-militants from the camp on 6th June, 2017.
He said during the camping, the ex-militants would be exposed to a deliberately designed, well-planned psychotherapy and psycho-social training, drug abuse intervention therapy and vocational training, which includes farming.
Other vocations, according to the Coordinator, will include carpentry, welding, hairdressing/barbing, automobile mechanic, welding, farming, arts/crafts among others through the guidance of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
He said after the camp, the ex-militant would continue the reintegration programme at their various places and would be given a micro loan to enable them start-off their businesses when they eventually graduate from their vocational training.
He said attention would be given to their religious background in tandem with the tenets of their faiths so that by the time they leave the camp, they would be better informed.
“All the training is to prepare them to become disciplined and responsible citizens as well as better informed and transformed socially, psychologically and spiritually with insight to their important roles in the societies and country,” said Gen. Shafa.
He said the OPSC before the end of camping would trace their families and let them know that the ex-combatants were in safe hands and would be reunited with them after the training to rest their anxieties.
The OPSC Coordinator nevertheless appealed to the ex combatants to make use of the chance given to them by paying attention to what they would be taught.
“On our part, we will try everything humanly possible to make their stay in the camp comfortable. So far, you could see that we have put in place state of the art facilities to guarantee them comfort,” he stated.
He said the present set of 53 clients included a lady from Chibok who arrived days earlier, though not one of the abducted students and is being treated with sensitivity to her gender pending her relocation elsewhere to continue the DRR process.
Speaking on behalf of the repentant militants, Malam Sale Muhammadu commended the Federal Government for accepting them in spite of the atrocities they had committed.
He promised that they will avail themselves of the opportunity given to them and become responsible citizens and called on those still in the bush to accept the olive branch being extended to them.
