The federal government of Nigeria on Friday, said it would not bow to pressure by a section of Nigerians to prosecute repentant Boko Haram terrorists, instead of granting them amnesty.
Recall that hundreds of Boko Haram fighters and their families, in the southern Borno towns of Konduga, Bama, and Mafa, in the past weeks, surrendered to the Nigeria Army.
However, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed said in Washington, U.S.A., during his engagement with global media outlets that the call for the insurgents’ prosecution and subsequent killing, was against global best practices.
“I personally spoke to the military authorities before I left Nigeria and they said what they were doing is what the global practice dictates about soldiers that surrendered that should be treated as prisoners of war.
“You cannot just shoot them because there are international conventions that give rights also to prisoners of war. What the military is doing is that, when they surrender, they profile them to ensure that they are genuine and reintegrate them into the society,” Mohammed said.
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