By Adoyi M. Aba
Abuja
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has presented food and non-food items to the military for Operation Safe Corridor programme meant to de-radicalise, rehabilitate and re-integrate 800 repented and surrendered Boko Haram insurgents to fast track peace process in the North east.
Presenting the items in Gombe, the Director-General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani- Sidi, said: “The initiative, which is in line with international best practices allowed those engaged in the fighting to voluntarily surrender and embrace peace so that they undergo rehabilitation.”
According to a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by the Agency’s Head of Media and Public Relations, Sani Datti, he said NEMA would play its role in the programme by providing regular support of food and non-food items for their up keep.
Items to be released for this purpose every three months included: 410 bags of rice, 400 bags of beans, 200 bags of millet, 200 bags of sorghum, 750 cartons of spaghetti, 50 cartons of magi cubes and 810 cartons tomato paste.
The non-food items included 800 pieces of mattress, 500 hundred pieces of blanket, 500 pieces of nylon mats, 1, 000 plastic buckets, 1000 plastic spoons, 1, 000 plastic cups 1, 000, plastics plates, 1, 000 plastic pairs of slippers, 2, 000 men’s wear, 63 cartons of bath soap and 1, 000 bath towels.
Receiving the items, the Coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor, Brigadier- General BM Shafa, said the initiative was designed to de-radicalise, rehabilitate and re-integrate willing and repented Boko Haram insurgents who had come out to surrender to the military and believing that it would quicken the peace process in the North-east.
“Between September last year and February, this year, a good number of Boko Haram members have come out to surrender,” he said.
He thanked the Gombe state government for providing the location and giving them the necessary support.
