We Resisted Attempts To Enlist Boko Haram  Members In The Military – SGF Akume

By Gideon Njoku

The late President Muhammadu Buhari Administration initiated plans to enlist “repentant” Boko Haram members into the Nigerian Military. This plan, did not significantly progress and was finally halted by the President Bola Tinubu Government.

This was disclosed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume. According to him, attempts to reintegrate members of the Boko Haram were initiated during the previous Administration but was eventually halted. He said: “There were attempts to put them in the Military but that was resisted. That was not done.

Akume, who spoke on Sunday also revealed that most of those behind the killings in were not Nigerians.

He maintained that quite a sizeable number of terrorists on a killing-spree  in Nigeria are foreign nationals who, he said infiltrated Nigeria through its porous borders.

Akume spoke while  addressing participants at the First Plenary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, held at St. Gabriel’s Chaplaincy, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja.

“Insecurity is a problem not only in this country but throughout the world. Even advanced countries are going through this”, but he described the pattern of killings as tragic. He however, emphasized that the violence and  killings did not start with the  administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

To buttress his point that many of the suspects arrested in connection with recent attacks were not Nigerians he argued:

“Many of these people who have been arrested don’t speak English. They speak very poor Hausa, but they speak French. Do we speak French in Nigeria? No

“Those who are doing the killings, most of them are from outside the country. I say what I know to be true based on security reports,” he stated. He said that the Nigerian Government was doing everything to defeat them.

“It is not that we are sitting by; America is cooperating with Nigeria. We are working together.

“The main reason the President was in Turkey was to purchase more armaments. This includes drones. So we are not just sitting idle.”

On the allegations of reintegrating former terrorists, the SGF explained that attempts to reintegrate members of Boko Haram were initiated during the previous administration but did not progress significantly and were later halted.

“There were attempts to put them in the military, but that was resisted. That was not done.”

He, also, assured that such measures would not be reintroduced without due consideration.