How repentant Boko Haram terrorists still transact with former colleagues hiding in Sambisa forest

Repentant Boko Haram members have been revealed to still be in contact with their former colleagues despite renouncing their membership.

One of such transactions led to the death of eight repentant Boko Haram terrorists as one was injured at a scavengers dump site in Bama LGA of Borno state on Monday.

According to a report by DailyTrust, \the ex-terrorists were among the 800 persons that were recently reintegrated back into the Bama community and were resettled at Government Girls Secondary School Bama.

The repentant terrorists, who were said to have sneaked out from Bama town allegedly, transacted the business of scrap metals with some Boko Haram terrorists in a market known as “Daula” located on the outskirts of Goniri village in Bama before the incident occurred.

Zagazola Makama, a Counter Insurgency Expert and Security Analyst in Lake Chad said the ex-terrorists allegedly received the scraps from their former colleagues (Boko Haram), who are still hiding in the Sambisa forest without knowing that some of the items included an undetonated IED that was abandoned in the aftermath of a military offensive. 

The source said that the transaction between the ex-Boko Haram and their former colleagues was not something new, adding that in many cases when they provided them with scraps, they exchanged it with food items, like maize, salt, and Maggi and other non-food items like clothing, petrol and medicine. 

“After receiving the items, they will stay in the outskirts of Bama town to dismantle into pieces before bringing them into the town to sell to their agents. They were in the process of dismantling the ions when the bomb exploded, killing eight of them instantly while one of them survived with injuries.