Federal Govt. Begins Rehabilitation Of 22 Female Bombers, 47 Dump Boko Haram

The Head of the Countering Violent Extremism Department in the Office of the National Security Adviser, Dr. Fatima Akilu, told President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday that no fewer than 22 women and girls recruited as suicide bombers by members of the Boko Haram sect are now undergoing rehabilitation under the program.

She said the female trained as suicide bombers by the sect were being rehabilitated after voluntarily embracing the agency’s de-radicalisation programme.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, quoted Akilu as speaking during a meeting she had with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to brief him of the department’s activities.

One of the objectives of the CVE is to reform terrorists and prevent others from joining terrorist organisations and violent sects.

Akilu told the President that the program’s non-military approach was running concurrently with the armed onslaught against insurgents in the country.

She said so far, the CVE had rehabilitated no fewer than 305 victims of terrorism rescued from the Sambisa Forest by the Nigerian military.

She told the President that a National Security Corridor Programme had been created to provide a safe route for those who wish to dump their membership of Boko Haram voluntarily and that 47 erstwhile members of the group had embraced the programme.