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The Defence Headquarters, Abuja, said on Sunday the military had secured the conviction of over 500 Boko Haram terrorists in court.

According to Punch news, The Acting Director, Defence Information, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, disclosed this in a statement, noting that the Islamic State West African Province fighters were also among the suspects “in courts of competent jurisdiction” being prosecuted.

 He said, “It is false to say that de-radicalised Boko Haram ex-fighters are being absorbed into the Nigerian military. We unambiguously state that such claims are not true. No Boko Haram ex-fighter has been recruited into the Nigerian military and no such plan is in the offing.

“The de-radicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration programme is a Federal Government programme conducted under the auspices of Operation Safe Corridor as a non-kinetic operation.

 “Nigeria’s de-radicalisation model is targeted at low risk combatants and has become a classical example in the Lake Chad Basin Region and West Africa.”

He added, “Over 250 repentant insurgents, who willingly abandoned their struggle and surrendered to federal troops have been de-radicalised, rehabilitated and re-integrated into the society by their respective state governments in conjunction with traditional and religious institutions.

“Nigeria’s de-radicalisation model is therefore not new in the global community as such model exists in Algeria, Colombia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

“So far in Nigeria, the de-radicalised ex-fighters are doing well in their respective communities as no adverse report has been recorded against the de-radicalised repentant ex-fighters by Operation Safe Corridor’s monitoring unit.”