The Nigerian Army has denied handing over 1009 ex-Boko Haram fighters to Borno State government.
The Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, said the report, which also alleged that the event was shrouded in secrecy, was obviously one of those attempts to dampen troops’ morale and denigrate the Nigerian Army, riding on the back of unsubstantiated reports and misinformation.
He said the Nigerian Army would not join issues with the masterminds of this false narrative.
Nwachukwu said it is an indisputable fact that the ongoing Counter Terrorism Counter Insurgency Operations (CTCOIN) in the North East has led to the arrest of several terrorism/insurgency suspects.
He said the suspects have been held in custody while undergoing profiling and further investigations by experts from the Joint Investigation Centre (JIC) and those who are found culpable are usually handed over to prosecuting agencies accordingly, while those who are not implicated in terrorism and insurgency are cleared and released to the state government for rehabilitation before being reintegrated into the society.
The Army spokesperson said the cleared suspects are therefore not ex-Boko Haram fighters as peddled in the said online report and as the masterminds would want to impress on the public.
According to Nwachukwu, a total of 1009 cleared suspects, not ex fighters, were released after this rigorous process on July 14, 2021.
Nwachukwu said it is also necessary to categorically state that the handing over of the cleared suspects was not shrouded in secrecy; rather it was witnessed by United Nations Humanitarian and government agencies, in tandem with global best practices.
He urged the general public to discountenance the misinformation, insisting that it was evidently a manipulation and distortion of the truth and reality of the event.