Victims say the government is “rewarding killers” as former Boko Haram fighters reenter society while displaced families struggle to eat.
By Luka Binniyat and Suleman Ayuba
(Maiduguri) – Borno State, North-East Nigeria, on Friday, June 12, 2026, released 720 former Boko Haram Islamist terrorists, along with their women and children, into society after they underwent de-radicalisation training, sparking outrage across Nigeria.
At a ceremony held at the old Hajj (Muslim Pilgrims) Camp in Maiduguri, the Borno State Government announced that the former Boko Haram members had completed a deradicalisation program featuring vocational training and Quranic oaths before being released back into the various communities from which they came, Nigerian media has reported.
In addition to the 720 Islamist terrorists were 992 spouses and 2,050 children and teenagers associated with the terror group.
The beneficiaries had voluntarily surrendered to military authorities during counter-insurgency operations in the North-East, according to Abdullahi Ishaq, a retired brigadier general, and a special advisor to Gov. Babagana Zulum, according to Premium Times.
Thousands of Former Boko Haram Now Free
“Today, the Borno Model is adjudged to be one of the most effective non-kinetic programs with over 350,000 persons that willingly exited the bush and surrendered to the military,” the paper reported.
However, the total number of ex-insurgents processed under the initiative is about 10,000, the retired general said on Friday, according to Premium Times.
Citizen backlash came quickly.
Criminal: Pardoning Terrorists
Leading Nigerian human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has condemned the pardoning, training and reintegration of terrorists, describing it as illegal and inconsistent with Nigeria’s anti-terrorism laws, as The Guardian reported two days after the Borno ceremony.
According to the report, Falana said that it had become common knowledge that officials of the Federal Government and some state governments had engaged in negotiations with armed groups, leading to the release and rehabilitation of individuals described as “repentant” terrorists and bandits, some of whom were allegedly offered financial incentives.
According to him, such actions violate the provisions of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, which criminalises any form of support, participation or association with proscribed terrorist organisations.
Falana specifically cited Section 12 of the Act, noting that it prescribes a minimum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for anyone who knowingly participates in meetings linked to terrorist groups or provides logistics, support or facilities for such engagements.
Reward To Retired Jihadists?
The President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Pogu Bitrus, condemned the reintegration program.
“It is a clever way of rewarding Islamist jihadists who have retired or have become too bored with killing and plundering non-Muslims and moderate Muslims,” he told TruthNigeria on Tuesday from Chibok, Southern Borno, via phone.
“If you live in Borno State, especially in Southern Borno, you will see how the so-called repentant terrorists who have returned are tormenting their communities,” he said.
“It is criminal, heartless and insensitive to reward serial killers and rapists and facilitate their return to the same people that they have harmed,” he said.
The Middle Belt Forum is the socio-political umbrella body of 300 ethnic nationalities across central Nigeria, and its members are predominantly Christians.
Bizarre Sense Of Justice
Speaking in the same vein, the leader of Afenifere, His Royal Highness, Oba (Yoruba traditional chief) Oladipo Olaitan, told TruthNigeria from Lagos, Nigeria, via phone that forgiving terrorists, training them and paying them to start life all over again was the most bizarre display of justice Nigeria had ever witnessed.
“When we read these developments, we in Western Nigeria are always shocked by the lack of humanity of leaders in the North,” he said.
“This whole bizarre and unacceptable form of compensating murderers all started under the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, who was a Fulani and was very soft on his Fulani outlaw brothers,” he said, adding that, “it is the most bizarre sense of justice that Nigeria has ever witnessed.”
Cannot Happen In Yorubaland
“I am very surprised that no one has gone to court to challenge that madness. It cannot happen in Yoruba land,” he said.
Afenifere is the principal socio-political organisation of the Yoruba ethnic group, one of Nigeria’s three major ethnic nationalities occupying six states in the western part of the country.
Survivors of Boko Haram’s atrocities also expressed anger over the program.
Kenneth James, 54, who still lives in an overcrowded internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Maiduguri, told TruthNigeria on Monday, June 15, 2026, that the forgiveness and reintegration of former Boko Haram terrorists amounted to a profound betrayal of their victims.
James, who was displaced after Boko Haram sacked his village of Mairari in Damboa LGA and killed scores of residents in 2016, lamented that billions of naira flowed to those who destroyed their lives.
“Some of those terrorists have been given houses here in Maiduguri to live with some of our daughters that they kidnapped, Islamised, and married them by force,” he said.
“They are living comfortably with our daughters and the children that were born for them while we are living here under conditions like animals that can hardly feed,” he said.
He questioned how men who once pledged allegiance to jihadists could be trusted in the same neighbourhoods they once terrorised.
7th Biggest Capital Project of 2026.
Foundation for Investigative Journalism, Nigeria (FIJN), reported in 2025 that the Borno State Government allocated N7.46 billion (about $6 million) for the reintegration, disarmament and demobilisation of repentant Boko Haram members in its 2025 budget, making it the seventh most expensive capital project for the year.
Luka Binniyat writes from Kaduna and Suleman Ayuba contributes from Maiduguri.
