101 Boko Haram suspects who were recently released from prisons, including the Kirikiri maximum and medium centers in Lagos State, have reasons that have come to light.
According to Anaedoonline.ng, a source told FIJ last Sunday that the facility’s wardens allegedly freed terrorists from the medium and maximum security prisons as part of a trade for the release of tourists who had been kidnapped in Kaduna on March 28.
According to the source, the terrorists had discussed being released before a new administration took office.
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The source claims that the freed terrorists were aware of the Kuje jailbreak, which saw the release of more than 60 feared militants.
But according to a Daily Trust article, 101 “Boko Haram” suspects who were detained in various locations in 2009 were recently released thanks to an out-of-court deal.
According to sources, negotiations for the suspects’ release began years ago when it became clear that there was no evidence to support their membership in Boko Haram, given that the majority of them were detained on the streets of different cities at the start of the Boko Haram uprising 13 years ago.
Recall that the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor had told journalists on Friday that, “… Perhaps may be at this point, what I may need to add is the fact that Council was also briefed that 101 ex-combatants were taken to Operation Safe Corridor (in Gombe) and currently undergoing the process of de-radicalization at the centre.
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“These were ex-combatants that have been in detention for several years, some of whom have served their terms. Others were those that were awaiting trial, but because of the long time that they have been involved and in line with the protocol or the procedure for handling anyone who has been exposed to terrorism or related offenses, the procedure for them to be taken through a process of de-radicalization.”
The agreement between the applicants and the respondents, as well as the Legal Aid Council, who represented the applicants, was reportedly authorized and adopted as judgments before three different High Court judges in Lagos, according to the article.
According to a document made public on Saturday, Justices Awogboro Olawunmi, Tijjani Garba Ringim, and Nicholas Oweibo issued the orders for their release on October 4 and 5.
The suspects were held following their many arrests in 2009 in Bauchi, Maiduguri, and Kano on suspicion of being Boko Haram members.
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This occurred as a result of operations launched by the police and other security agencies to quell the rebellion conducted by Mohammed Yusuf-led Boko Haram fighters.
Since then, the suspects had been in detention with no hope of freedom until recently.
“There is no iota of truth in the alleged prisoner swap. The terrorists who released the last set of the train victims have nothing to do with the 101 people released from Kirikiri. Those people in Kirikiri were not Boko Haram members. There was no evidence to nail them.
“The terrorists that attacked the Abuja-Kaduna train had set their members free during the invasion of Kuje prison in Abuja. Those people freed from Kirikiri have no value to the terrorists. It was just a coincidence that their release nearly coincided with the release of the train victims,” a source close to the military in Maiduguri, Borno State, said.
Also speaking, an official of the Legal Aid Council said the detainees were arrested by the police at various places in Maiduguri, Kano and Bauchi states.
“Some of the suspects were arrested in raids by the police in their homes, business premises, mosques or highways,’’ he said.
“They were separately detained in correctional centres in Kano, Maiduguri and Bauchi pending the time they would meet their bail conditions. However, in March 2011 they were all herded into a truck and moved to Lagos.
“We have 74 being detained in the Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre, while 27 are detained in Kirikiri Medium Correctional Centre,” he said.
A top official of the Council denied a trending statement on the social media that their release was part of the terms of negotiations for the release of 23 Abuja-Kaduna train hostages.
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“This is balderdash. It is a tissue of lies. They were released by a court order,’’ the official who craved anonymity told Daily Trust Saturday.
He also confirmed that upon their release, the military took them to Gombe for debriefing and deradicalisation.
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