The Speaker of Borno State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Abdulkarim Lawan, on Monday, faulted claims made by Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Gabriel Olonisakin that all the 27 Local Government Areas in the state have been liberated from the hands of Boko Haram sect and fully under the control of Military Troops.
Lawan said that the entire Guzamala Local Government Area where he hails from is still under the control of Boko Haram sect.
He said, “there is no single existence of civil life in Guzamala, not to even talk of Military presence in the Council Headquarter and its surrounding communities, that are not dominated by armed Boko Haram Fighters.”
Lawan was speaking at Guzamala Concerned Stakeholders’ Meeting in Maiduguri and their continued stay in resettlement camps and other host communities for several years. He said, although, he has been agitating for military presence in Guzamala to enable his displaced people take the advantage of Governor Babagana Zulum’s move in Reconstruction and Resettlement, but to no avail, as Guzamala is still a ‘no go area’.
He said even as Speaker who has been reelected for four consecutive times representing Guzamala, he has spent over three years without stepping into Guzamala, and wondered why the Federal Government Officials who were busy staying at their comfort in Abuja would fabricate lies in telling the general public that all local government areas in Borno are safe.
“We have a total of 774 Local Government areas in Nigeria, we in Guzamala Council want the Federal Government to tell us whether Guzalama has been cancelled out of the 774 so that we can know our position and look for a better option”.
Lawan stated. He said even in the whole of the 10 Local Government Areas in the entire Northern Borno, lives only exists in the nine (9) Council Headquarters, but not in wards or villages, as most people from Northern Borno including their Imams, Traditional Rulers and stakeholders resides in Maiduguri and other host communities.
The Speaker, however, appealed to the new service chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Leo Irabor to put in their best restore civil presence in Guzamala and its surrounding communities so that his people will go back and resettle continue their normal lives.
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