The Federal Government has reportedly freed over 1,000 members of Boko Haram terror group held in custody.
This is coming amidst the rise in insecurity across the country since President Muhammadu Buhari began his second and final term in office as a democratic president.
On Monday, Babakura Jato, the commissioner for information in Borno State, was quoted by Punch Newspapers to have relayed the information to it.
Mr Babakura said about 1,400 Boko Haram repentant suspects were freed after being rehabilitated since the release of suspects began in 2018.
“There have been a series of releases. They were released in three tranches. The first set was released during Governor Shettima’s time while two sets have been released under Prof. Zulum,” the commissioner said.
“The total number of persons released is 1,400. Out of the 1,400, the majority of them are cleared suspects. These were people who were suspected of being members of Boko Haram and it was discovered that they were not.
“The rest are children of Boko Haram or actual Boko Haram members. I cannot give you a breakdown of the figure now for security reasons,” he added.
Jato said he was unaware of speculations in some quarters that the released suspects went back to terrorism.
“I have not heard of that but we have had cases whereby people in the community rejected them. So, they return to the rehab centres and we change their location,” he added.
