The Nigerian military has released 1,009 ex-Boko Haram fighters, who had been in military custody at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
Punch reports that they were handed over to the Borno State Government on Wednesday in a secret ceremony that was initially billed to take place at an earlier date but was suspended indefinitely by the military authorities at the wake of the appointment of the new COAS.
Sources in the army told the newspaper that the ex-terrorists were handed over to the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo, who represented the state government at the event.
The officer said, “The army handed 1,009 Boko Haram insurgents to the state government today (Wednesday). It was done in secret. We were warned us not to allow journalists to the venue.”
This comes at a time when the Nigerian authorities are clamping down of peaceful agitators.
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