AI, SERAP, others fault Senate’s bill to send ex-Boko Haram overseas

Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, Yobe East, had sponsored ‘A Bill for the Establishment of the National Agency for the Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria and for Other Connected Purposes’ where Section 5 of the bill, which has already passed the second reading at the Senate states that “the agency shall implement programmes geared towards the rehabilitation of beneficiaries; engage the services of offshore and Nigerian institutions in the pursuit of the educational needs of ex-agitators.”

However, some civil society organisations and rights groups have condemned the bill noting that the signal it sends to the international community was that some senators were  behind the terrorist groups and the killings in the country.

They civil and rights groups include Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria; Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP); Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre; Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) and Centre for Corrections and Human Development (CCHD).

The groups condemned the bill as a misplaced priority, demanding that the Senate should instead dissipate time and energy in sponsoring a bill to take care of the thousands of victims of  Boko Haram in the North East and other parts of Nigeria.

Chair of Amnesty International, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, told Daily Sun that the Senate was sending a wrong signal to Nigerians and the rest of the world with the bill.

“The Senators are talking about sending the so-called repentant Boko Haram abroad for training, what about the victims of the Boko Haram? The bill is condemnable and unacceptable. The whole thing gives the impression that somebody is benefiting from it. You also see these Boko Haram members in their centres while their victims are languishing in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps,” he said.

Olanrewaju Suraju, Chair, HEDA Resource Centre, described the bill as “obviously finding ‘jobs for the boys.”

He said rehabilitating and reintegrating repentant insurgents back into society should be a process and not an action. “International training, a financial intensive activity cannot be part of such consideration at this stage of infancy. For the benefit of those with the misplaced misconceptions, the insurgency and its nefarious activities is distinct from the militancy of the Niger delta militants.

Whereas the militancy in Niger Delta was targeted at confronting the perceived oppressor of the Deltans and usurpers of the natural resources, the insurgents target innocent victims and perpetrate heinous crimes against communities,” he said.

SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, in a letter to Senate President, Ahmed Lawan,  said rather than focus on the bill to send repentant Boko Haram abroad, it should “sponsor bills that would ensure access to justice and reparation for victims of Boko Haram terrorist group.”

“Boko Haram fighters are not ‘ex-agitators’ as the Senate bill portrays them, and addressing them as such  makes mockery of the atrocities committed by the terrorist group, and is a blatant affront to victims’ dignity.”

The organisation warned that it would take “legal actions nationally and internationally to challenge the legality of any such law should the Senate go ahead to pass the bill and should the bill be supported by the House of Representatives and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.”

Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Okechukwu Nwanguma, said rather than pampering terrorists and bandits, government should extract information from the ‘repentant’ ones with a view to ending their activities.

“Criminals ought to be treated according to the law: investigated and prosecuted for their crimes. At worse, we need to hear how these so-called repentant terrorists have given information that would help in locating and rescuing abducted victims, including the Chibok and Dapchi students, and how to generally bring an end to terrorism and other violent crimes,” he said.

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