The Nigeria Army has released 1,250 Boko Haram suspects who had been cleared of having no links with insurgency and the group.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division of the army, Brig Gen Victor Ezugwu, made this known when the Head of Sub Delegation of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Beat Mosimann, visited him on Monday at the Maimalari cantonment in Maiduguri, North-eastern Nigeria.
According to Ezugwu, the cleared suspects were released on the order of the Chief or Army Staff, Lt.-Gen Tukur Buratai in about seven batches, noting that, more detainees would be freed in January, Vanguard reports.
He said, “We are keeping this on the regular release because the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Burutai, wants us to ensure that it is only people who have contact and connection with Boko Haram that have insurgency issues to sort that should be detained so that those who do not have contact should be released.
“By the end of this January and February another batch of detainees would be cleared.
“The ICRC wants us to collaborate in the area of welfare for our detainees and we have assured them that we are going to continue doing our best in terms of welfare in accordance with international practice.
Earlier, Mosimann said that ICRC has mapped out several programmes in 2017 to assist IDPs that would be returning back to their respective communities.
