Against the backdrop of pessimism surrounding reported repentance, leading to surrender by some Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists, one of them, Abba (not real name) has revealed that he genuinely repented and not in disguise.
Abba made this revelation when Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Onyeama Nwachukwu, alongside selected journalists visited the holding facilities where surrendered terrorists undergoing preliminary profiling and interrogation are kept in Borno State.
The repentance fighter disclosed that he had spent about six years fighting the war but later realised that they were not fighting any just cause.
When asked about the genuineness of his surrendering and also to know the reasons for his sudden change of heart, he said, he surrendered when he discoverd that, he is doing wrong things.
"I have genuinely repented and I will never return to the terrorists group. I want to live and be a responsible human and not a terrorist, he said.
“I want to urge my colleagues who are still in the bush to come out and surrender because they will be accepted,” he said.
In his word, the Commander 21 Special Armoured Brigade Bama, Brig.-Gen. Adewale Adekeye, dismissed insinuation that the surrendered terrorists were being housed in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in the Borno State.
Brig.-Gen. Adewale Adekeye revealed that the Nigerian Army did not mix the surrendered Terrorists with the IDPs and of course, the IDPs camp Bama is one of the oldest camps in Borno State.
He added that “the Population in the camp has reduced due to the resettlement of the IDPs back to their ancestral homes but the IDPs camp is a separate thing and it is not under my command but the state emergency management agency,”.
He noted that, so far the Military have been receiving and profiling thousands of Boko Haram/ISWAP fighters, their families and supporters since JULY this year.
Adekeye said the theatre command was aware of the fears and apprehension that the recent event had generated among the Nigerians.
He explained that surrendering was a normal practice in the annals of the history of warfare, and even in the law of war, when enemy surrenders to you, there are things you are expected to do and that are what the army has been doing.
“The number of insurgents that have surrendered is quite large, however, most of them have been processed and moved down to the holding facility organised by Borno State Government in Maiduguri.
"Many responsibilities are bestowed on us being the first contact to profiling them as they come out of the bush,” he said.
The Brigade Commander said the surrendering events had been taking place within Bama Local Government Area of Borno given its large size and proximity to Sambisa Forest.
Speaking during the operational visit to the holding facilities in Borno, the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, said the aim of the media tour is to showcase the glaring tremendouse efforts and successes of the military in the ongoing fight against insurgency and especially the current mass surrendering of the Boko Haram Terrorists to Commanders, their fighter and family members.
Nwachukwu added that the tour to the holding facility afford the media the opportunity to ask series of questions from surrendered terrorists, hence the need to inform the public that their surrendering was genuine and that the military is not taking anything for granted while handling the sensitive issue.
He commended the Brigade commander and troops for their vigilance and gallantry that had led to the mass surrender of the terrorists.
