Boko Haram: DHQ raises amnesty committee

In from Timothy Enietan-Matthews (Nation’s capital) …
In a move that may herald a sharp shift in government’s policy in the fight against Book Haram insurgents, the Defence Headquarters has inaugurated a committee to midwife the process of granting amnesty to willing members of the Boko Haram sect.
A statement released by the Defence Headquarters through Group Captain Wap Maigida, on behalf of the Acting Director, Defence Information, Col. Rabe Abubakar, on Wednesday, stated that the planned re-integration would involve three categories of Boko Haram members.
According to the statement, those to benefit from government’s gesture are those who were forcibly enlisted into the sect; those who had surrendered and renounced membership of the deadly sect and those willing to do so.
According to Maigida, the membership of the committee were drawn from agencies involved in the ongoing campaign against the insurgents, which are representatives from Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba states in the North-East and Jigawa State in the North-West.

Read also: Boko Haram will soon be history–FG

In a related development, after suffering series of defeats from the Nigeria armed forces on the battlefield, Boko Haram has resorted to poisoning water sources in villages as its new war strategy.
The Nigerian Army, which stated this on Wednesday, noted that wells and streams in the villages were the targets of the sect.
The Army said in a statement by its Deputy Director of Army Public Relations, Colonel Tukur Gusau, that “Information reaching the Theatre Command, Operation Lafiya Dole indicates that Boko Haram terrorists have now resorted to poisoning water sources like wells and streams in areas they were dislodged by gallant troops or areas threatened by offensive operations.
“The latest being the poisoning of the cattle water ponds in Kangallam village along Marte and Abadam axis in Borno State where a large number of cattle died after drinking water from the ponds.
The new action of the terrorists, the Army said “is no doubt aimed at taking their own pound of flesh on innocent citizens and livestock as a result of the unbearable offensive operations through the combined effort of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force to route them out completely from their enclaves and hide-outs all over the North East”.
The Army therefore advised the residents to “avoid as much as possible drinking water from unverified sources especially in locations where troops routed out Boko Haram terrorists”.

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