Boko Haram Commission Bill Is An Assault on Sensibility of Nigerians- Senator Gyang

Senator I. D. Gyang of Plateau North in 9th National Assembly has disassociated himself from the Bill seeking to establish an agency for the rehabilitation and reintegration of repentant Boko Haram Terrorist and Bandits introduced for mention on First Reading at the Senate. Senators will have the opportunity to debate the Bill on Second Reading.

Senator Gyang in a statement issued on Saturday by his Media Aide, Musa Ibrahim Ashoms, said the Bill is not only uncalled for but assaults the sensibility of Nigerians.

He noted that most of the victims and communities affected by insurgency, banditry and violent attacks are still languishing from neglect and lack of the much needed government attention and intervention despite repeated calls.

Senator Gyang posits that victim communities displaced by insurgency and banditry from their ancestral homes are the ones to be rehabilitated and reintegrated as against terrorists and bandits that are responsible for their pain and plight.

He lamented the irony where care and attention for terrorist takes precedence over and above that for the victims!!

The statement read:

”This, to Senator Gyang is inconceivable, incongruous and offensive to good conscience and equity.

”Attempts at certain quarters to compare and equate Boko Haram terrorist with the Niger Delta Agitators which attracted the Presidential Amnesty Initiative and Program under the administration of President Yar’adua, is, to Senator Gyang, ludicrous.

”Moreso, 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 create 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 incentivize terrorism.

”Senator Gyang is therefore calling on all Senators 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.”