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.
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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