Nigerian troops said on Tuesday it had made a number of arrests after intercepting a vehicle allegedly carrying fuel and drugs for Boko Haram Islamists.
The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, said in a statement on Tuesday that the suspects were arrested at Depchi and Geidam in Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe State, a hotbed of the six-year insurgency ravaging the country.
According to him, the arrested terrorists were also involved in the supply of fuel aside from the hard drugs in their possession.
Usman listed the drugs to include cannabis, chlorophone substance known as Madaran suck and die, trampoline and others .
“Following…directives to troops in the northeast for a painstaking search of motorists and cargoes, troops of the 3 Division Nigerian army have intercepted and arrested some kingpins and foot soldiers of suppliers of Boko Haram terrorists with hard drugs and other stimulants,” the army said in the statement.
Besides drugs the suspects were also transporting fuel, the statement said, without saying how many people had been arrested.
The army claimed the alleged drugs find as proof the insurgents bloody quest to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria was a sham.
The use of drugs is prohibited in Islam, except for medicinal purposes.
To further puncture their Islamic claims, the spokesman said that most of the Boko Haram members captured by the troops could not read the Holy Quran.According to him, some of them could not even recite the first chapter of the Quran in spite of their claim that they had a desire to establish an Islamic state.
He said that troops carrying out raids on the hideouts of the insurgents had not found the Quran or other Islamic books with the insurgents.
The Acting Army spokesman said that the troops had only found “ammunition, local charms, condoms and all sort of drugs including sex enhancing ones in their enclave.”
Usman, who said that those arrested had made statements, promised that the Army would continue to work towards ensuring the security of the country.
“The Nigerian Army would continue to do its best in the fight against terrorism and insurgency in our country in order to make Nigeria safe and secure.
“This however, requires continuous support and cooperation of the public. We always welcome and appreciate information that could lead to the arrest and pre-empting the Boko Haram terrorists and other criminal elements in the society,” he added.
Nigeria has lost an estimated 15,000 people with some 2.1 million others displaced since 2009.
