EFCC declares Yahaya Bello wanted over alleged N80bn ‘financial crimes’
FG gives reasons why repentant insurgents can’t be shot
By Modupe Shodeinde
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the call for the prosecution and killing of the repentant militants rather than granting them amnesty cannot be heeded to because it is against global best practices.
The minister who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Washington, yesterday, said that there are international conventions that protect the rights of the insurgents that have surrendered their arms.
“I personally spoke to the military authority before I left Nigeria and they said what they were doing is what the global practice dictates about soldiers that surrendered that should be treated as prisoners of war.
“You cannot just shoot them because there are international conventions that give rights also to prisoners of war. What the military is doing is that, when they surrender, they profile them to ensure that they are genuine and reintegrate them into the society,” he explained.
The Minister also cautioned against negative and false narratives around Boko Haram members who are surrendering to the Nigerian military in the insurgency-ravaged North East.
He berated those he said were alleging that the surrendered insurgents were not actual Boko Haram fighters and if they were, they should be shot rather than granted amnesty.
According to him, the claim in certain quarters that the surrendered insurgents would be recruited into the Nigerian military is “false and demoralising’’
Mohammed said that rather than changing the narratives, President Muhammadu Buhari and the military should be commended for their resourcefulness and doggedness in the fight against insurgency.
“The fact that we are witnessing insurgents submitting in droves calls for the commendation of our military for their doggedness.”
The minister also commended the President for believing in the nation’s military despite pressure to recruit mercenaries to fight the war against insurgency in the country
