Daniel Bwala, special adviser on policy communication to President Bola Tinubu, revealed on Wednesday how Boko Haram replenishes its ranks when fighters are killed or captured. The militant group raids villages and abducts children to forcibly conscript them into combat roles, he disclosed.
Speaking on Channels Television's Politics Today, Bwala explained the group's recruitment pattern. "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," he said.
Bwala noted that some of these conscripted fighters later escape and surrender to Nigerian authorities. "If something happens in the camp and they escape they come to Nigeria government, and they said they have repented, the Nigeria will not shoot them," he told the programme.
He linked the recruitment strategy to international conflict protocols. The dynamics governing armed warfare are shaped by United Nations conventions, according to him.
The presidential aide acknowledged fears shared by many Nigerians about defectors returning to insurgent ranks. "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," Bwala noted.
He argued that such occurrences are common in warfare and even within established state institutions. "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," he added.
