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Every home has an instrument call knife which is commonly used in the kitchen for cutting purposes. No matter how the knife is used, or abandoned to rust , once it is sharpened and cleaned, it does not remove the original character that as a knife, it can still cut and be regarded as a dangerous and deadly instrument. When in the hand of criminals, it can be used to either dispossess innocent victims of their hard earned property or are subjected to inhuman treatment that could lead to death. In other words, no matter how long a knife looks unused, it can never Obliterate its original character as a dangerous instrument often used by every criminal, kidnappers and even terrorists. One is therefore surprise when the military that should be concerned about complete elimination of terrorists that had over a decade had inflicted pain and killed thousands of innocent citizens for no justifiable reasons. They had either sacked people from their ancestral homes and destroyed many buildings in the villages or townships . These terrorists who had committed these mayhems are the same people that the military are deliberately providing safe haven for them and the ladies they forcefully kidnapped , raped into submission and were forcefully married without the concent of their paperrents . A marriage that neither their parents nor government were involved. Can this be the people the military is granting amnesty?. Truely the military that had lost undisclosed number of its men to the hands of these killers. Would be the same military that would wake up to open doors for these terrorists and branded them as “repentant terrorists”.
Surely, the military many Nigerians know about, would not have ventured or dare think in the direction of showing mercy to terrorists whether repentant or otheise, after mercilessly killing their colleagues , many of whom where their best friend , family members or course,ates, if there was no bigger voice from above that ordered such arrangement to take place. Afterall, without the president’s nod, the amnesty granted to the Niger Delta militants wouldn’t have taken place. Despite the fact that such was suggested to President Umaru Musa Yar’ardua by the then lnspector General of police, Mr Mike Mbama Okiro. In this case, the militants were more after foreigners exporting their mineral oil without any corresponding infrastructure and development reflecting on the local communities. How then can we juxtapose the amnesty being granted the Boko Haram terrorists who had no stake except using religion and jihad to subjugate the people. Many had continued to wonder why the former President Muhammadu Buhari knowing the resultant effect of granting amnesty to terrorists whether not minding the tag or label being used to describe the action. A terrorist like a knife will always be a dangerous person. What is repentance without the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus for the holy scripture says in the book of Acts of the Apostles , Chapter 4 verse 12 “Salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”. No matter the reason , purpose and argument push forward to explain the reintegration of these repentant terrorist , such had , unfortunately slowed down the vigour and early years of raw enthusiasm the soldiers had displayed when they were deployed to the war front .
Security observers believe that the increase in insecurity around the country can be linked to the supposedly celebrated amnesty granted over the years to Boko Haram terrorists . Even when tongues are still wagging and terrorized families that had tested the Scrooge of the evil group, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, recently disclosed that over 1900 Repentant Boko Haram Terrorists were Released Back Into Communities this was disclosed during a lecture on Psychological Operations and Strategic Communication (PSYOPS)”organised by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Abuja
The programme was held with the theme, “Winning Hearts and Minds for National Cohesion and Development”.
The CDS, was represented by Rear Admiral Daupreye Matthew, Director of Training, Defence Headquarters, who further said that the military had not contemplated scrapping the non-kinetic approach as part of the efforts being used to solve insecurity challenges. use of non-kinetic efforts under Operation Safe Corridor had led to the surrender of more than 2,000 Boko Haran members between 2016 and 2017. A break down of the number of the repentant Boko Haram members shows that According to him, 67 per cent of those who surrendered were of the Abubakar Shekau faction of the insurgents, adding that 1,543 repentant terrorists graduated from Mallam Sidi Camp in green grass.
Gombe State and 1,935 were released from Bulumkutu camp in Borno between 2016 and 2022 , he further noted that from July 2021 to May 4, 2022 alone, no fewer than 51,828 terrorists and their family members surrendered, out of which 13,360 were fighters, stressing that 106,000 terrorists and their family members had so far surrendered in the North East.
Many would ask what exactly is kinetic military action according to “Kinetic military action is a euphemism for military action involving active warfare, including lethal force. The phrase is used to contrast between conventional military (kinetic) action from “soft” force increasingly used against enemies, including diplomacy, sanctions and cyber warfare”.
However. from every indication, even where reasoning is applied, many Nigerians , especially citizens of the north who have had painful taste of the evil and horrifying activities of members of the Boko Haram , would never be persuaded to accept granting amnesty to any member of the group for the pains and sorrow inflicted on them and members of their families. It is better that the process is never publicized rather than adding salt into their inflicted injury.
If the quotation from the scripture which says, “ The heart of man is desperately wicked, no one can understand it” , is to guide our reasoning, then every acclaimed repentant Boko Haram member still stand before Both the civilian and uniformed victims as a suspect despite their new baptismal name “ Repentant”. They are like the green snake under the green grass.
