The Federal Government is thinking about setting up centers for terrorist groups that are sorry for what they have done.
The coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Center, Rear Admiral Yem Musa (retired), told the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence about the NCTC’s plans to set up two Disarmament, Deradicalization, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration Centers for remorseful terrorists.
He said that he is part of the NCTC’s capital projects for 2023.
The centres will get N2,400,000,000 of the proposed capital spending of N3,839,160,000 for next year.
On November 17, 2022, the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (ret. ), brought the heads of the intelligence community before 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 what it was set up to do.
In part, the NCTC’s presentation to the committee says, “Since it was founded, efforts have been made to set up and run the center.
Since the center opened early 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 getting the center up and running so it can do 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 changed it to N997,152,292.25, which he said “is not enough for the Centre, given the number of people it plans to hire.”
The NCTC coordinator asked the committee to take into account and approve 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 a review.
The NCTC coordinator asked the committee to “enable the appropriation of (a) the sum of N1,864,889,169.00 only for personnel costs for the year 2023; (b) the sum of N5,860,610,050.00 only for overhead costs for the year 2023; and (c) the sum of N3,839,160,000.00 only for capital expenditures for the year 2023.”
