No LGA in Borno state is under B'Haram - Shettima
no local government area is under the control of
Boko Haram insurgents
– He also said the Nigerian troops have
successfully pushed the sects out of the state
Governor Yusuf Shettima of Borno state dismissed as
false claims that Boko Karam insurgents were
controling 24 out 27 local government areas in the
state.
He said that following the successes recorded by
Nigerian troops in the last seven months coupled
with realities on ground showed that none of the 27
local government t areas in the state were being
occupied by the dreaded sect.
Governor Shettima made this clarification on
Monday, February 8m in reaction to statement
credited to a senator from the state who allegedly
said that only three out of the 27 local government
areas in the state were under full control of Nigerian
Armed Forces adding that insurgents were in full or
partial control of most parts of the state.The Governor spoke in
response to questions by
journalists shortly on arriving the Maiduguri
International Airport. He had traveled to Saudi Arabia
a week ago, to lead a delegation of northern
Governors for series of meetings with executives of
the Islamic Development Bank in Jedda towards
attracting support to rebuild the northern region. He
returned to Maiduguri on Monday.
Shettima reacted saying: "To me, it is unbelievable
that such a statement could have emanated from
Senator Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai. I can't believe he
said that because as a Senator, he has access to the
Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the IGP
and even the Presidency and he is not the type that
even speaks to the media easily, so this is why I am
at a lost, I have not been able to get in touch with him
yet to get his own side, to hear from him what he
actually said but for now, i suspect he must have
been misquoted or if he wasn't misquoted, he must
have spoken based on emotional outburst and
notanchored on ground realities. We cannot mix two
things. There is a difference between Boko Haram
insurgents seizing and occupying territories and
Boko Haram attacking communities, these are two
differentthings. In the past, Boko Haram used to
come in commando styles to attack, seize, occupy
communities and hold residents hostage and then
administer territories, that is occupation. We no
longer have that in Borno. None of the 27 local
government areas is being occupied by Boko Haram."They have all been
liberated. What we have are
challenges still being posed by Boko Haram to show
their presence and even these attacks are done from
the position of weakness and not strength. In the
past, the moved with audacity and arrogance, now
they move with fear just like armed robbers do in
other parts of Nigeria. Our military personnel have
done marvelously well under the Buhari
administration and I think we can only commend
them and not vilify them. Buhari has shown
uncommon and absolute commitment to ending this
insurgency. Two sons of Borno, the Chief of Army
Staff and the National Security Adviser are leading
this fight and this goes to show the sincerity of the
President ."
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