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A video of men dressed in military uniform saluting a state governor in Nigeria has been shared thousands of times on social media alongside claims that it shows 103 repentant Boko Haram fighters being absorbed into the Nigerian army. This is false; while Nigeria has a deradicalisation programme for ex-Boko Haram fighters, this footage actually shows members of a joint task force who were absorbed into the army. Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima inspecting 103 #REPENTANT Boko Haram #Terrorists who were then recruited into the Nigerian Army, the caption of a video uploaded to Facebook reads. The video, which has been viewed more than 20,000 times, shows a man in the Nigerian army camouflage leading a troop of soldiers. A screenshot taken on June 11, 2021, showing the false post Governor come and see o, your boys are good to go, the leader of the troops is heard saying. We are good to go, the other men, also dressed in camouflage, respond. Deradicalisation programme The Nigerian Army runs a deradicalisation programme for Boko Haram fighters who surrender their arms and quit fighting. The controversial project has faced criticism from the public . In 2016, AFP reported that the army had set up a camp to reform fighters. The project was called Operation Safe Corridor. By 2018, the army had released 244 rehabilitated ex-Boko Haram fighters back into society. In 2020, after pledging allegiance to the federal government, 602 of these ex-fighters were released to their communities, as reported by the local media here and here . However, Babagana Zulum, the current governor of Borno state who came into office in 2019, said the deradicalisation programme is not working and that some of the repentant fighters end up as spies. Ali Ndume, a senator from Borno state and chairman of the senate committee on the army, has rejected the programme . Others, including Abdulmalik Biu, a senior army official, have defended it, even suggesting that a repentant Boko Haram fighter could one day become president of Nigeria. Video doesn’t show Boko Haram fighters Although the video shared on Facebook has the watermark of the Borno state government, AFP Fact Check could not find any record of the video on official pages of the state government. By running a reverse image search using screenshots of keyframes from the video, we found another version of the video here on YouTube, which appears to be the earliest version online. According to the caption on this YouTube video, which was uploaded on November 8, 2018, the footage shows members of a civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) being absorbed into the army. The Governor of Borno State Kashim Shettima with 103 former volunteers of the Civilian JTF who have been recently recruited into the Nigerian Army, the caption reads. Members of the civilian JTF are locals who work with the army to fight Boko Haram insurgents in their communities. A November 2018 report by Nigerian newspaper Premium Times corroborates the caption of the video, stating that 103 members of the JTF were indeed absorbed into the army. A total of 103 former members of the youth vigilante force, who supported the military to fight Boko Haram in Borno State, have been recruited into the Nigerian army, the article reads. Another video , recorded from a different angle, shows the same scene, alongside the Premium Times report's link, with a caption stating that these men were members of the civilian JTF. It was also uploaded to the internet in November 2018. Abdulkareem Haruna, the journalist who covered the event for the Premium Times and photographed it , told AFP Fact Check that the men in the videos were indeed civilian JFT members who volunteered to join the army, not Boko Haram fighters. Haruna said the civilian JTF members were brutal in the fight against Boko Haram, adding that the insurgents will prefer to spare a soldier than spare a member of the JTF. When these rumours began making the rounds in 2020, Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesperson, stated that no ex-Boko Haram fighters had been absorbed into the army. It is important for the public to know that nobody has ever been absorbed into the military from the de-radicalized Boko Haram and there is no such plan for their absorption, Shehu said. The coordinator for the rehabilitation programme, Major General Bamidele Shafa, had also said the army was not recruiting repentant fighters into the military. The Nigerian Defence Headquarters also debunked the rumours here on Twitter.
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