ADC Tears Into Oluyede Over Boko Haram ‘Repentance’ Remark

2027 Election Watch, Analysis, National Security, Nigeria, Politics

ADC Tears Into Oluyede Over Boko Haram ‘Repentance’ Remark

ADC blasts CDS Oluyede over terrorist rehabilitation remarks, calling the language dangerous amid Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.

Atlantic Post

March 27, 2026

3–4 minutes

ADC, Atlantic Post, Boko Haram, Counterinsurgency, featured, national defence, Nigeria security, Olufemi Oluyede, Operation Safe Corridor, Terrorism

Party says defence chief’s “sons and brothers” language weakens Nigeria’s war on terror, demands a tougher, no-nonsense security doctrine.

ABUJA — Nigeria’s security debate erupted again on Thursday after the African Democratic Congress launched a blistering attack on Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede, over his defence of rehabilitation for repentant terrorists.

The opposition party said his comments were dangerously soft. They argued that no serious state should describe Boko Haram fighters in familial terms. This happens while Nigerians continue to bury victims of mass killings, abductions, and bombings.

ADC spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi made a statement. It sharpened the political temperature around the country’s worsening insecurity. He accused top officials of normalising criminality.

He said the language coming from the security establishment was sending the wrong signal at the wrong time.

“First, the NSA referred to terrorists as his brothers. Now, the Chief of Defence Staff is referring to terrorists as sons,” Abdullahi said.

“These rhetorics reflect a dangerous mindset that accommodates and tolerates criminality instead of confronting it.”

The backlash followed Oluyede’s remarks at an inaugural lecture in Abuja, where he defended Operation Safe Corridor, the military’s deradicalisation and reintegration programme for surrendered insurgents.

Addressing criticism of the initiative, the defence chief argued that not every fighter should be killed and that some should be given a path to abandon violence.

“Talking about Operation Safe Corridor, so many people have asked that question: why do we need to rehabilitate criminals? They all should be killed because they have killed people. Well, that may make sense,” he said.

Oluyede added that the programme was about creating an exit route from extremism, not excusing terrorism.

“But even in the Bible, we heard about the prodigal son. If there was not that window for the man to come back, would they have come back?” he asked.

He insisted that many of the insurgents were Nigerians and should not be pushed deeper into radicalism.

“So the point is that these are Nigerians, mostly. And it’s important for us to give them that window to repent, if they want, rather than pushing them to the extreme,” he said.

ADC dismissed that argument as reckless, insisting that the state must speak with moral clarity if it hopes to defeat terror.

The party said terrorists are not sons, brothers or misguided children, but enemies of the state who should be treated accordingly.

“When a government begins to frame terrorists in familial terms, it blurs the moral and legal lines that must remain clear in any serious security response,” Abdullahi said.

“With this mindset, it is easy to understand why the current approach has struggled to protect lives and decisively end the killings.”

The party said an ADC-led government would adopt a much harder line. This would include special terrorism courts to fast-track prosecutions. It would also involve a broader security architecture built around intelligence, prevention, coordination, and regional cooperation.

“A terrorist will neither be a son nor a brother. They are the enemy and will be treated as such,” Abdullahi said.

The row lands at a time when insecurity remains one of Nigeria’s most explosive national crises. Boko Haram and its offshoots continue to launch attacks across the North-East, while fresh killings, abductions and ransom-driven violence keep public anger high.

Recent attacks in Borno State and renewed pressure on military formations have again placed the country’s counterinsurgency strategy under scrutiny.

The real fight, however, is no longer only on the battlefield. It is also over language, policy and the direction of the state’s response.

To critics, soft talk on terrorists sounds like surrender. To the military, rehabilitation is a necessary tool in a long and brutal war. That divide is now out in the open.