The sponsor of the bill seeking to an agency for repentant Boko Haram insurgents, Senator Ibrahim Gaidam (APC, Yobe East), says it is driven by national interest.
The bill, which passed first reading last Thursday, had elicited negative reactions from Nigerians who called for its withdrawal.
Gaidam defended the bill in a statement yesterday.
He said since Boko Haram was becoming increasingly aggressive, marked by extreme brutality and explicit targeting of civilians, resulting in continued infliction of massive casualty on innocent citizens, particularly in the northeast, “it has become necessary for us to go back to the drawing board and adopt an alternative approach in addition to the military option which has so far performed significantly well.”
