File: Daniel Bwala
The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has said Boko Haram often replenishes its ranks by abducting children from villages whenever the terrorist group suffers significant losses.
Bwala made this known on Wednesday while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he explained the complexities surrounding the rehabilitation of former insurgents.
“When Boko Haram starts to lose their members, they go to villages and carry children and take them to the bush and recruit them; these are the people you recruited against their will,” Bwala said.
He explained that some of the abducted children eventually escape from the insurgents’ camps and surrender to the Nigerian authorities.
“If something happens in the camp and they escape, they come to Nigerian government, and they said they have repented, the Nigeria government will not shoot them,” he said.
Bwala noted that the handling of such cases is guided by international humanitarian principles.
“And that is why I said the dynamics of armed conflict is guided by the United Nations Convention,” he added.
Addressing concerns that some rehabilitated ex-insurgents may return to terrorism, the presidential aide acknowledged that such risks exist.
“The other part of your fear as expressed by most Nigerians is that we have had cases where some of them ran back. Even the governor of Borno once said that some of the attacks that resurged probably have connection with some of those that ran back,” he said.
He added that defections and recidivism are realities in armed conflicts across the world.
“In warfare and conflicts, these things are possibilities. Even when it comes to established institutions of state from foreign intelligence, we have seen defection of people to another place where they are recruited; these are realities of facts,” Bwala said.
