A lawyer in Nigeria has taken his opposition to the reintegration of remorseful former Boko Haram insurgents into the society to the courts, to fight this prospect.
It comes as some 700 individuals who had renounced their memberships of the Boko Haram militant group were recently released and reintegrated into Nigerian society.
Maxwell Opara, a human rights lawyer is petitioning the Federal High Court in Abuja for a mandatory injunction ordering the federation’s Attorney-General to pursue criminal proceedings against the former insurgents.
The former insurgents are part of a scheme by the military to reintegrate them to Nigerian society but Lawyer Opara has been campaigning tooth and nail against this, saying their role in rendering some parts of the country ungovernable has led to mass deaths and destruction.
He is using the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, and other laws to ensure the immediate suspension of the Operation Safe Corridor Reintegration Programme.
Opara is asking the federal high court to determine whether reintegrating the over 700 former Boko Haram fighters into society without pursuing criminal prosecution, judicial conviction or sentencing by any court of competent jurisdiction, is consistent with the provisions of the 1999 constitution (as amended), and the ACJA, 2015.
The lawyer is therefore seeking the court to rule that reintegrating them without prior prosecution and judicial conviction was unlawful, unconstitutional and a violation of the rule of law.
His arguement is that the Nigerian military and the Attorney General of the Federation as Ist and 2nd respondents respectively do not have the legal authority to grant de facto immunity or amnesty to individuals who actively participated in ”terrorism, murder, kidnapping and other violent crimes”.
A judge is yet to be assigned to the case.
WN/as/APA