Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has dismissed reports suggesting that repentant terrorists are being secretly absorbed into the military, describing such claims as false and misleading.
Speaking in Abuja, the Coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor, Yusuf Ali, stressed: “We are not recruiting any killers into the army, and we can never do that.”
He also debunked fears that rehabilitated former insurgents are acting as informants for Boko Haram or ISWAP, insisting such concerns are unfounded.
According to him: “There is no way the repentant terrorists… can go back to the terrorists’ group. They will be killed.
The high-risk terrorists believe they are now government spies who have benefitted and will sell them out.”
Ali explained that Operation Safe Corridor is strictly a rehabilitation and reintegration programme—not a recruitment channel.
He noted that the Nigerian military maintains strict enlistment standards, adding: “Once you have any criminal record, you cannot join the military or any security agency.”
The initiative, launched during the peak of the insurgency in the North-East, focuses only on low-risk individuals—those coerced into terrorist groups without committing prosecutable offences.
These participants undergo de-radicalisation, counselling, and vocational training to help them reintegrate into society.
He emphasized that hardcore fighters are still prosecuted through the criminal justice system, noting: “The military’s message is clear: Operation Safe Corridor is about rehabilitation, not recruitment.”