Plateau Senator, ID Gyang opposes Boko Haram agency

Senator representing Plateau North in the Nigerian Parliament, Istifanus Gyang says the Senate Bill for the establishment of an agency for the rehabilitation and reintegration of ‘repentant’ Boko Haram terrorists and bandits is uncalled for.

The Bill, Gyang said assaults the sensibility of Nigerians as most victims of violent attacks are still suffering neglect from government.

Communities displaced by insurgency and banditry, the Senator said in a press statement, should be rehabilitated instead.

“It is lamentable that care and attention for terrorist takes precedence over and above that for the victims

“This, to me is inconceivable, incongruous and offensive to good conscience and equity,” he said.

A similar program for Niger Delta militants was a policy initiative with specific timelines for execution, Gyang stated.

The Boko Haram rehabilitation bill is therefore is a “terrorist breeding agency,” he said.

Gyang said, “The Presidential Amnesty Program was not a product of legislation but of government policy and has remained so. It was an intervention program with a time line and terminal date unlike the Pro Boko Haram Bill which intends to creat an agency that will exist in perpetuity.

“By the proposed legislation, terrorism becomes a permanent feature to feed and sustain the activities of the agency which can best be described as “TERRORIST BREEDING AGENCY”.

“The Bill is simply an attempt to use the National Assembly particularly the Senate, to acquiesce, placate and gratifies terrorism.”

The Senator therefore called all colleagues to reject the Bill given its “obvious negative implications” for the security of the nation.

“To do otherwise is to incentivize terrorism and put the nation in perpetual harm’s way,” he said.