The Federal Government is thinking about opening rehab centers for terrorist groups that want to change.
Rear Admiral Yem Musa (ret. ), who is the Coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, told the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence that the NCTC plans to set up two Disarmament, Deradicalization, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration Centres for terrorists who want to change their minds.
He said that his is one of the NCTC’s capital projects for 2023.
The centres will get N2,400,000,000 of the proposed N3,839,160,000 in capital spending for next year.
On November 17, 2022, the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (ret. ), led the heads of the intelligence community in front of the committee to defend their proposed budgets for 2023.
Musa complained that the NCTC, which has been around for less than a year, hasn’t had enough money to do the things it was set up to do.
In part of the NCTC’s presentation to the committee, it says, “Since it was founded, efforts have been made to set up and make the center work. Since the center opened at the beginning of this year, it has been hard to do these things because the budget for this year did not include money for it.
“That’s why this first budget is so important for the center to get off the ground and start doing its main job.”
Musa told the committee that the projected cost of personnel for 2023 was N1,864,889,169, but the Budget Office of the Federation lowered it to N997,152,292.25, which he said “is not enough for the Centre, given how many people are planned to work there.”
The NCTC coordinator asked the committee to think about and agree to the first amount sent by the center.
The NCTC wanted to spend N3,839,160,000 on its capital projects, but the amount was cut down to N428,860,000 after review.
The NCTC coordinator asked the committee to “facilitate the appropriation of (a) the sum of N1,864,889,169.00 only as personnel cost for the Year 2023; (b) the sum of N5,860,610,050.00 only as overhead cost for the Year 2023; and (c) the sum of N3,839,160,000.00 only as capital expenditure for the Year 2023.”
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