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Governor Kashim Shettima
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The Borno state government yesterday took a swipe at former
president Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of not doing enough to alleviate the
sufferings of the people of the state, including Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs) in the face of attacks by insurgents.
Governor Kashim Shettima,
who spoke through his deputy, Zanna Umar Mustapha, at the government house in
Maiduguri yesterday said, the Jonathan administration only gave N200 million to
support the state within the last four years as against N4billion which he gave
to the Adamawa State government.
Leadership report continues:
According to the
governor, the state government has spent about N11 billion to cater for the
victims of insurgency.
Mustapha, who was
speaking while receiving relief materials donated to Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs) in the state by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), said it was
a good thing that Nigerians asked for change and a new government is now in
place.
He said with the sack of
22 local government areas by insurgents, resulting to over one million
displaced persons, the federal government under Jonathan only gave the state
N200 million whereas Adamawa state which lost about six local government areas
received about N4 billion from the federal government within the same period.
He said, “I must say here
that the then federal government led by former president Goodluck Jonathan, did
not pay attention to the people of Borno at all. For the four years that we
were engaging the insurgents, the only thing the government gave us was N200 million.
“Jonathan and his entire
cabinet were playing politics with issue of insurgency and Boko Haram in Borno.
We lost 22 local government completely to insurgency, where as Adamawa state
lost about six local governments and Adamawa state was given N4 billion,” he
said.
He also disclosed that
the National Emergency Management Agency were in and out of the state during
Jonathan’s administration without taking full charge of the humanitarian
situation of the displaced persons.
However, he said after
the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari, NEMA officials visited the state
some days ago, indicating readiness to now take over full responsibility of the
situation.
While expressing
gratitude to Customs for donating relief items to IDPs, he called on other agencies
to emulate the Service and come to the aid of displaced persons in the state,
whom he said the state has spent over N11 billion catering for.
He also solicited more
help from Customs in the area of building schools and drilling water bore holes
in recovered communities, after their wells have been contaminated by dead
persons thrown into the wells by the insurgents.
Earlier, the
Comptroller-General of Customs, Abdullahi Dikko, who was represented by Deputy
Comptroller General, Musa Tahir, said the relief materials were voluntarily
donated by officers and men of the Service with support from their wives.
He thanked the state
government for the support given Customs command in Borno despite the
challenges the state is undergoing.
“Today, we are here to present
to you some relief materials that were voluntarily donated by officers and men
of the Service. This is coming from the heart of of officers, they were not
bought with government money. There are more than 71 different items from food
stuff, clothing, shoes, medical needs, chocolates for children and so on,”
Tahir said.
He added that “the NCS
feels the pain of the IDPs, they are our brothers, sisters and mothers. The NCS
will work hand in hand with you in whatever way to alleviate the sufferings of
the IDPs until they are returned back safely home. We pray this situation will
come to an end soon so that Borno state will take its pride and place among the
states of Nigeria,” Tahir added.
Jonathan’s men keep mum
on Shettima’s Allegation
Meanwhile, efforts made
by our correspondent to get former presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati to
react to the allegations raised by the Borno State governor against the former
president and his erstwhile boss turned out to be futile.
The former senior special
assistant to the former president on public affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe could also
not be reached.
Calls made to them and an
email message sent to Abati did not yield any result.
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