Professor Babagana Zulum, the governor of Borno State, has prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages within the state.
The governor 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 sorts of criminality and antisocial vices in the Maiduguri metropolis and surrounding areas.
According to the governor, the prohibition on the sale and use of spirits and alcoholic beverages as a result of the growing number of incidents of cultism, prostitution, drug abuse, thuggery, theft, and conflicts between rival groups that have resulted in the loss of life and property.
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.
Additionally, he said that both current and former members of Nigeria’s security services had contributed significantly to the state’s increased threat of terrorism by persuading the civilian populance to engage in criminal activity, radicalism, prostitution, and other vices.
“I am happy to know that army officers are here, especially the military, police, and others are here because most of these activities were committed by whom? Some of them are dismissed army officers, dismissed security officers, current army officers, men and officers, including civilians.
“So, there should be no sacred cow in this matter if we want the Maiduguri metropolis and indeed the state to get rid of insurgency, terrorism and other sorts of criminalities,” Zulum said.
