HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has accused the Borno state Governor Babagana Zulum of Islamisation agenda by banning the sales or alcoholic beverages in the state as if to say he is ruling the state like a taliban similar to what obtains in Afghanistan.
HURIWA said the Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Zulum, has banned the sale of alcoholic beverages in the state just as he made the announcement on Tuesday at the inauguration of a reconstituted committee on “revocation of illegal hotels, brothels, shanties, and criminal hideouts and curbing the menace of antisocial vices” at the council chambers of the government house in Maiduguri, the state capital.
Zulum also reconstituted and re-empowered the committee to purge the state of all forms of criminality and antisocial vices in the Maiduguri metropolis and surrounding environments.
The governor said the ban on sales and consumption of liquor and alcoholic contents stems from the rising cases of clashes among rival groups, cultism, prostitution, drug abuse, thuggery and theft, which have led to loss of lives and valuables.
He also co-opted the military, police, civil defence, and several other security agencies, including the civilian JTF, to join the committee for a holistic approach.
He also stated that former and current serving personnel of the Nigerian security forces have played a significant role in influencing the civilian populace into criminality, radicalism, prostitution and other vices, heightening terrorism threats in the state.
Responding to what it calls an unnecessary aggression against the economic interests of beer sellers and the egregious violation of the human rights of consumers of alcohol, HURIWA reminded the state governor that Borno state is a place whereby the natives are not all extremists of Islamists. The Rights group accused the governor of displaying an ‘I’m holier than thou’ attitudes that is tantamount to driving into poverty and joblessness those whose businesses are the distribution and sales of alcohol. “We urge the IGP, the service chiefs to stop their armed operatives from implementing this unconstitutional directive by the Borno state Governor because the armed forces are bound by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended.
“We are at a loss how the governor who is an academic professor concluded that the consumption of liquor and alcoholic beverages automatically makes the drinker a terrorists or a criminal just as the we believe that the conclusion by Zulum is preposterous and unproven. If someone chooses not to consume alcohol that doesn’t make the person a saint just as drinking alcohol has no scientific association with criminality. “The demonisation of drinkers of alcohol is totally unjustifiable and ridiculous.
The Borno state Governor simply enbarks on the TALIBANIZATION of the state. This is unconstitutional as this policy violates both the relevant sections against discrimination and declaration of a particular religion as a state religion as spelt out in sections 42(1) and 10 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended. The governor should be told that his decision is illegal and therefore remains a nullity and of no moment.
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko,
National Coordinator,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). May 7th, 2025.
