PRESIDENT of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has described the decision by some Boko Haram terrorists to surrender to the military forces as a welcome development.

He said the Federal Government should work with the Borno State Government to ensure that those without issues among the terrorists were immediately sanitised and integrated into the society.

Lawan stated this in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Monday at the palace of the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar El-Kanemi.

The Senate President was in the state in company with the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, on a condolence visit to the monarch, who lost his elder brother, and also to the family of former Foreign Affairs minister, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, over the death of his mother-in-law.

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A statement by Lawan’s media aide, Ola Awoniyi, titled, ‘We should encourage more Boko Haram surrender to end insurgency – Senate President’, quoted the Senate President as saying that any of the terrorists who “may have issues”, should be made to undergo legal processes.

He said, “Those that have no issues to answer are sanitised and taking back to their communities. Those that may have issues to answer should be taken through the legal processes.

“But we must ensure that we encourage Boko Haram elements and those they have taken by force to come out to surrender so that this unnecessary insurgency placed on us comes to an end.”

Speaking, the Shehu of Bornu said his people had “seriously suffered as a result of Boko Haram crisis”.

He added that they were lucky to have the Buhari Government which eventually changed the tide.