Right from the very beginning of the operations of the proscribed Boko Haram terrorists in 2001, the federal government (FG) has never at anytime given them a breathing space. It has always been clamping down on them. And it was in the course of this that Malam Mohammed Yusuf who founded it was killed in 2009. Even after that, the surviving members of the terrorist group which was then led by Abubakar Shekau were frustrated by the military incursions until they moved into the Sambisa forest where they and ISWAP which is their breakaway faction have been till date.
But the ongoing onslaughts on them in their hideouts and strongholds in the vast forest have reportedly forced over thirteen thousand of them to surrender to the troops. And the FG is left with no other option aside to grant them amnesty, as well as rehabilitate and empower them economically by training them in different vocations that can make them self-dependent.
Also, since bandits started their own version of insecurity in the North-West, they too have not been finding life easy. That is because of the unrelenting manner with which the NigerIan security forces have been dealing decisively with them. And with some of them also surrendering to the JTF, they are likewise being pardoned and rehabilitated.
However, since these criminals are synonymous with kidnapping and collection of ransoms for the release of their abducted victims, both the state and federal governments, as well as the individuals used to pay them such monetary settlements. But along the line, the government came to realise that the hoodlums do divert most part of the money into acquiring more weapons with which they terrorise the general public, including government officials and assets. Thus, as a result, both of the FG and some state governments decided that they would not make such settlement with them any longer.
Unfortunately, despite government's fights against the outlaws and the permanent abolition of the act of settling them monetarily for the release of Kidnapped persons, some people still finger it (government) of sponsoring them, and that it is the reason they keep killing and abducting the innocent and unarmed members of the public. But this is a wrong and unpatriotic accusation of the government that is ever committed to stamp every strain of insecurity out of the country for good. We all need to support and stand with the government in the fight against all the agents of insecurity and lawlessness in the country, not baselessly pointing an accusing finger at it.
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