Repentant Boko Haram ladies seek husbands

There are growing concerns in Arewa communities, as some of their leaders complained that repentant female Boko Haram terrorists are finding it difficult to get married or remarry.

It was gathered that men are scared to marry the repentant female Boko Haram insurgents.

“These ladies desperately want to marry or remarry, but men seem scared of them, as no suitors approach them with such a proposal,” a ward head at Old Maiduguri, Modu Grema Wakil, complained in Maiduguri, on Monday, April 15, 2024.

“I have not compiled the number of such ladies, but they send messages to us as community leaders over the matter,” he said.

Wakil continued: “Our fear is that if these women and girls do not get the men to marry, they may be tempted to renege on their repentance vow from terror activities and return to the bush.

“But when they get suitors and marry or remarry in the law-abiding society, other girls and women still in the bush could be encouraged to surrender and come back home.”

Asked if the problem was a matter of societal stigma, the community leader assured: “No. I don’t think so because the societal stigma against them is waning.”

He stressed, “but we are severely pained by the fact that suitors are scared of marrying them, because most people still don’t believe they have genuinely repented, and, therefore, they may slaughter their husbands and flee back to the bush.”

Wakil, therefore, called on the Borno State government to create a database of such repenting female insurgents with a view to persuading suitors to approach them and organising marriages for them.

Further expressing his fears, he maintained: “The inability to marry or remarry at home may tempt them to renege on their repentance.”

Responding, the Borno State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Zuwaira Gambo stated that it’s a welcome development that they are expressing their desire to marry or remarry, because it will help to stabilise them in the law-abiding society.

She said the state government would work with the Maiduguri-based NGO, Allamin Foundation, to create the required database for that purpose.