Odinkalu hails new approach to fighting terrorism

Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission, in Abuja on Thursday described the new approach adopted by security agencies to fight terrorism as a welcome development.
Odinkalu told the News Agency of Nigeria that many approaches were needed to tackle insurgency.
Reacting to the New Approach to Countering Terrorism by the Office of the National Security Adviser, he said both soft and hard approaches were required.
He said: “You need the soft approach, de-radicalisation, investment in community resilience and education to complement the hard approach which is the military approach.
“The fact is that until now we have only seen the military approach, we have not seen the non-military dimension.
“So, this is a positive thing (new approach) that we are beginning to see that there is this possibility and I think we should encourage it.”
Odinkalu said the commission would work with the office of the NSA on how human rights could be included in the new approach.
Also, a security expert, Mike Ejiofor, noted that collaborating with the governors of the North East states, one of the initiatives in the programme, would help in achieving result.
“The soft-approach coming from the office of the NSA should be commended,” Ejiofor said.
It will be recalled that the office of the NSA on Tuesday rolled out a soft approach to counter-terrorism in the country.