FG Spends Over N600m To Unradicalize Repentant Terrorists

The Nigerian government has spent 604 million and 824,797 thousand naira for the reintegration of repentant terrorists who laid down their weapons and handed them over to the government.

Figures obtained by the Govspend, a government spending monitoring agency, show that significant amounts of money were spent on construction and other measures to change their behavior, from the facilities they were housed in to the health professionals who were monitoring them, under the Operation Safe Corridor’s program.

ENCLEF PROJECT * CONSULTANTS LTD, a consulting firm that led the monitoring and provided estimates for the cost of materials and facilities, including the Kirikiri prison, cost N47,436,922 million.

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In the North-East, EL-HABY CONCEPT LTD led the expansion of the behavioral health centers, which cost N41,728,606 million.

Similarly, FOSAB GLOBAL ENERGY SERVICE LTD, which was tasked with various projects including the construction of dormitories, received N151,899,923 million.

The government under the National Revenue Agency also deducted the amount from the amount earmarked for paying contractors as taxes.

Recent figures show that the Nigerian government has converted 744 terrorists, including 8 from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

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Borno State has the largest population with 597, followed by Yobe with 58, Kano with 18, Bauchi with 12, and Adamawa with 10.

The reintegration program was built on changing the behavior of the former combatants (repentant terrorists), upon their transition back to daily life within their community, enabling them to rebuild the economic, social and psychosocial relationships needed to maintain life, livelihood and dignity.