Nigeria Army freesfrees 42 Suspected but cleared Boko Haram members

By Blogger

Nigeria Army officials at 7 Division headquarters,  Maiduguri, Borno State has today (Thursday)  released 42 Suspected Boko Haram members who arrested some years and or months ago for alleged involvement in the ongoing insurgency. 

Spokesman of the 7 Division Nigeria Army,  Maiduguri, Col Usman Sani, led the 42 freed detainees to the government house Maiduguri where he handed them over to Governor Kashim Shettima, as most of them,  except three foreigners, are residents of Borno state. 

"Over time in the course of Nigeria army's fight against terrorism,  some suspected Boko Haram terrorists were arrested and investigated and some of them have been duly cleared of all complicity with the terrorists", said Col Usman.

"Base on the directives of the defense headquarters  42 of such cleared suspects are to be handed over to the Borno State government. Out of this number,  three of them are foreigners; one from Burkina Faso,  the other from Chad and one from Cameroon. Base on further directive, also, each one of them have been given a token of N100,000 so that they can go back and continue with their normal lives as free citizens"

"We in the Nigeria army will continue to do our best in the ongoing fight against insurgency until we get rid of this problem".

Governor Kashim Shetima who expressed happiness over the development commended the military for "being fair and just".

The governor said each of the freed persons would be assisted by the state government to happily get reintegrated into the normal society.

"We commend the fairness,  equity and justice displayed by the Nigeria armed forces towards releasing any body who is found not to be involved in this terrorists activities.

"Amongst them are students, Tailors,  mechanics,  provision stores owners and of course quite a handful of them are drivers; we have a moral obligations to ensure that these young men at this time of their lives are actively engaged. Along this line, I wish to direct the road maintenance agency to include those that are drivers as employed truck drivers, while those that are Tailors should be engaged in sewing uniforms for students and pupils in line with our education transformation program, those that are farmers should be given the resources to improve their farming; while the traders would be given some token in addition to what the military gave them to boost their trade. The students among them should be assisted to return back to school", Shettima said.