Adamawa State Governor, James Ngilari, has cried out to President
Goodluck Jonathan over the fate of his state, saying save his state from
being overrun by the dreaded Boko Haram sect who he noted has already
captured five local governments and are advancing to other towns.
The
Governor made the plea to Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on
Thursday being a day the Boko Haram militants renamed another town it
captured as part of its Islamic caliphate. The sect is believed to have
gone ahead to commence full enforcement of Sharia law in those areas it
succeeded in taking over.
Speaking with State House correspondents
after a closed-door meeting with President Jonathan in Abuja on
Thursday, Ngilari noted that five local governments in Adamawa State
have been taken over by Boko Haram insurgents and pleaded with the
military authorities to deploy more troops to the state.
While noting that the failure to increase the presence of the
military in the state may mean that the terrorist group will completely
overrun it, the Governor maintained that the security situation in the
state remained fluid and required a more urgent intervention by the
Federal Government.
“The security situation in Adamawa is very
dicey right now and we are only trying to do our best to manage the
situation. We are praying that it will improve, but it is really
something to worry about,” he stated.
As regards the number of
towns presently being controlled by the terrorists, the Governor
revealed, “I can talk of my entire senatorial district, Mubi senatorial
district. Five local governments have been overrun; Gombi was taken and I
just got a report now that perhaps they are on the outskirts of Shanli.
“There is a semblance of movement in that area
Really, we need a lot of intervention. We need to move more troops to
secure the state. Really, it is a big challenge,” he added.
The Governor, who tampered the seizure of the home town of the Chief
of Defense Staff, argued that the issue of insurgency was much more than
taking one person’s home town, saying “we shouldn’t reduce this issue
of the insurgency to simply the taking over of the house of the defense
chief.”
Continuing he noted that, “there are a whole lot of things
that make the challenge of insecurity. What about the problem of
unemployment? You know it is a whole long story. We don’t just reduce it
to the taking over of the house of the defense chief. I think it is
more than that. Absolutely it is a challenge. We look up to God, God is
there; there is nothing impossible for Him.
“We will do our best,
but it is not something that we should leave in the hands of government.
Everybody has a role to play in terms of giving out information timely,
in terms of convincing people who are involved. They live with us, they
are not from planet Mars, they are part and parcel of the society,” he
pointed out.
Not minding the gloomy picture he painted, the Governor expressed
optimism that the insurgency would soon be a thing of the past,
stressing that “I believe that Nigeria will really overcome, but I don’t
know the time frame. Anything that affects any part of Nigeria affects
the rest. We must all see how we can tame this monster.”
source; dailypost