Legal practitioner Dr Maxwell Opara has come against the Federal Government’s reintegration programme for former terrorists, saying the policy risks encouraging terrorism rather than curbing it.
Speaking on ARISE News on Friday, April 17, 2026, Opara described the initiative under Operation Safe Corridor as dangerous and counterproductive.
“This is a means upon which the government are using to encourage people to go into terrorism,” he said.
Opara argued that allowing individuals accused of terrorism to undergo rehabilitation without full prosecution undermines Nigeria’s criminal justice system.
“Once a crime is committed, our laws are there. Once we are investigated, we’ll be charged to court. Once we are charged to court, the only role the federal government has to do is to, through the attorney general, to discontinue the matter,” he stated.
He added that convicted offenders should only benefit from presidential pardon after due legal process.
“Once the person has been faced with trial and convicted, the only option for the person is to grant the person amnesty, that presidential pardon, when the person meets the necessary criteria,” he said.
The lawyer questioned the justification for reintegrating individuals into communities devastated by terrorism.
“And the representative of the chief of army staff was begging the community to accept them back. Now, I ask him a question again. Which community? The community that is no longer in existence,” he said.
Criticism of Timing and Accountability
Opara further criticised the programme as harmful to victims, warning that it could deepen trauma and fuel resentment. “I’m assuring you they are creating more harm than good,” he stated.
Addressing claims that some suspects were coerced into terrorism, he rejected coercion as a valid defence. “When they force you into a crime, or they convince you into a crime, or they pay you money to join to the crime, once you are an adult and you commit a crime, that should not be a defense,” he said.
He also dismissed reliance on United Nations resolutions supporting rehabilitation.
“United Nations resolution is not automatic. This is a resolution, it’s advisory. It is not left for each sovereign state to look at your own peculiar laws, look at your own peculiar circumstances before you now apply it,” he explained.
Opara maintained that implementing reintegration policies while terrorism remains widespread is ill-timed. “You don’t do the right thing at the wrong time, for goodness sake,” he added.
Finally, he called for more accountability in the programme, asking anti-corruption agencies to investigate its funding.
“This is, to me, this is an epitome of fraud,” he said, revealing plans to challenge the policy in court. “By next week I shall be approaching a federal high court to stop this madness.”
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