Former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), has categorically dismissed persistent rumours that repentant Boko Haram insurgents are being recruited into the Nigerian Armed Forces, describing the claim as “completely impossible” under the country’s military recruitment system.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday night, the retired four-star general, who served as CDS from January 2021 to June 2023, said the allegation has remained a personal burden because it has no basis in reality.
“It has always been a burden for me where we got this impression from. How can they be recruited? This does not exist,” Irabor stated emphatically.
Drawing from his extensive frontline and command experience, he added: “Before I became CDS, I was Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole in the North-East.
"I later became Force Commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force, Chief of Defence Training and Operations, and then CDS for two and a half years.
"At no point did such a policy exist, and it could never have happened under my watch or the watch of any professional CDS.”
Gen. Irabor explained that even the most basic entry into the Nigerian military requires multiple layers of vetting, including mandatory clearance and endorsement from the candidate’s local government chairman and traditional rulers.
“You cannot come into the military if those in your local government have not actually sanctioned and identified you. It is impossible for former terrorists to slip through,” he stressed.
The retired general clarified the actual purpose of Operation Safe Corridor, the Federal Government’s deradicalisation programme launched in 2016.
“Operation Safe Corridor is strictly for deradicalising low-risk repentant insurgents and reintegrating them into civilian society not the armed forces.
"They go back to their communities after counselling, skills acquisition and reconciliation with victims’ families where possible. The military is not a rehabilitation centre,” he said.
While acknowledging that Nigeria still faces significant security challenges, Irabor insisted the shortcomings are not due to incompetence or complicity within the armed forces but rather gaps in manpower, modern equipment, intelligence sharing and a deeper understanding of the evolving dynamics of asymmetric warfare.
The former CDS’s blunt rebuttal comes amid renewed public debate over the handling of surrendered Boko Haram fighters, with thousands of low-level insurgents having passed through Operation Safe Corridor since 2016, many of them resettled in states across the North-East and North-West.
Security analysts say the persistent rumour of military absorption continues to fuel distrust among communities still traumatised by years of terrorist violence, even as the military maintains that no ex-combatant has ever worn the Nigerian uniform.
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