Boko Haram insurgents reportedly threw a child alive into a burning vehicle during an attack on Auno village in Borno State, a former military administrator of Lagos State says.
Brig. Gen Buba Marwa (retd.) says the terrorists had set a bus on fire in the city and in a bid to save her child, a woman threw her child out of the burning vehicle. However, a member of the deadly Islamic group picked the child and threw him back into the bus.
Marwa, who is the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee For The Elimination Of Drug Abuse, spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday.
He attributes such wicked acts to persons under the influence of hard drugs.
“Let me tell you, last week someone in Auno near Maiduguri mentioned to me that there was a woman in one of the buses being burnt alive.,” Marwa says.
“She threw her child out so that at least the child would survive. The insurgents picked the child and flung him back into the bus. What kind of depravity could that be unless somebody was completely out of his senses?
“So this is the root cause of most of our problems, including security, and must be tackled.”
Marwa said raids on several terrorist hideouts showed that the insurgency was being fuelled mainly by hard drugs.
He, therefore, stated that Nigeria would collapse if it doesn’t tackle drug abuse effectively.
Marwa’s committee was constituted in December 2018 and submitted its report to the President in October 2019.
But the report has not been implemented as it is being reviewed by a second committee chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.
According to Marwa, the second committee is expected to meet later this week and he would be “surprised” if its implementation does not “start in another month.”
“The drug control scourge in Nigeria, unless it is tackled, we are finished,” Marwa said.
“Whether it is Boko Haram, banditry, kidnapping, they all use drugs.
Among the recommendations of Marwa’s committee is the declaration of a state of emergency against drug abuse and the establishment of a new agency – the National Drug Control Commission.
When asked why the NDLEA simply couldn’t be expanded, Marwa said the existing agency would be “moved to work in partnership” because it “faces supply reduction”.
