Yobe monarch urges deployment of more troops to end insurgency in region

• Gaidam says state spends over N10b to fight Boko Haram 

THE Chairman of Yobe State Traditional Council of Chiefs (YTCC) and Emir of Fika, Muhammadu Ibn Abali Muhammadu Idrissa, has urged the Federal Government to improve security in the North-East by deploying more troops with increased “intelligence surveillances” on Boko Haram modus operandi and hide-outs.

  Speaking at his Potiskum palace over the suicide bombings at a motor park, Idrissa said: “No government, organisation or individual is immune to Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. The terrorist activities do not spare anybody since the 2009 insurgency.

  “The scaling up of improved security in the sub-region by deployment of more troops was inevitable as our people continue to live in perpetual fears and apprehension.”

  He said the socio-economic implications of insurgency was “alarming and frightening” and expressed fears that the extended family unit which had always acted as a social safety net of many communities is being destroyed with no any other alternative of survivals.

  “Tens of hundreds of women are now widows, while many children are growing-up without parents and without any value system to control them. This situation will have a long-term negative effect on the society. Unless something positive and urgent is done to end this Boko Haram insurgency, we will continue to wallow in poverty and backwardness,” the monarch added.

  Meanwhile, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State has said that the state government had expended over N10 billion in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency along with the military and other security agencies.

  The governor, who disclosed this at the weekend during a fun-raising dinner held in Damaturu, the state capital, to finance his re-election bid in next month’s general elections, said: “Since the beginning of this Boko Haram insurgency in this state, we had been playing a very supportive role both financially and morally along with logistics and other requirements of soldiers and policemen to end this criminality that claimed many lives and property. Besides this, a whooping amount of about N10 billion so far had been spent in fighting Boko Haram for the last four or five years here in this state.”

  The monarch, who said there was need to tackle the problem right from its roots, said: “Yobe State is economically marginalised, with highest case of absolute poverty. This created the enabling

environment for the emergence of radical armed groups and the approach to the situation is economic development and youths empowerment.

   “We must re-focus and re-dedicate our energies towards improving education. The federal and state governments should take serious note that education is the only safety net to end this madness of killing people and destruction of people’s property without any genuine cause.”

  He, therefore, urged the Federal Government to take note of the losses incurred by several communities and organisations in the state and take drastic steps in addressing them.

  Gaidam said some of the supportive initiatives include procurement of vehicles, payment of allowances, medical treatment for injured security personnel and assistance to families of those killed in the ongoing war, among others.

  He, however, regretted that the funds expended in the fight against insurgency could have been reallocated and used for the provision of basic social services for the people of the state.

  “Our accumulated expenditure from the beginning of this insurgency to date is over N10 billion. It is obvious that the security challenges have slowed down the execution of our developmental policies and programmes; because funds that could have been used for the provision of social services are being reallocated and deployed to support the fight against insurgency,” Gaidam said.

  He also expressed concern that the Federal Government, which controls the security agencies, had however failed to permanently end insurgency in the North-East sub-region of Nigeria.