Ex-Borno Commissioner Challenges Minister On Insurgency

A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and former commissioner for trade, commerce and industry, Hon Yerima Lawan Kareto, has invited the minister of information and national orientation,

Mohammed Idris to visit Borno and follow him to Damasak, the headquarters of Mobbar local government area.

Kareto who hails from Damasak, hitherto a liberated town bordering Niger Republic and about 190.5km drive from Maiduguri, the state capital, said he would personally drive the minister to enable him see things for himself before making any statement on the renewed Boko Haram onslaught in the region.
Recall that at the end of an Expanded Security Council Meeting of heads of security agencies, traditional rulers and other stakeholders in Maiduguri on Tuesday, Governor Babagana Zulum, who chaired the meeting suggested that the state might lose control to Boko Haram insurgents due to the renewed attacks which have so far killed many people and dislodged military formations in Wulgo, Sabon Gari, Wajirko, Izge, among others.

However, in a press statement issued on Wednesday, the minister disagreed with Zulum’s claim, saying the administration remained committed to combating terrorism and banditry across the nation.
He argued that the security agencies were working round-the-clock to bring the situation in parts of Borno and other states under control.

The minister’s statement attracted wide public condemnation. Although, a day after (Thursday, April 10), the minister’s media aide, Rabiu Ibrahim, ‘back- pedalled,’ describing the report credited to his boss as “categorically false and a gross distortion of the minister’s remarks.”

Ibrahim stressed that, at no point did the minister say, “Ignore Zulum, Boko Haram has not taken over Borno.”

However, reacting in a press statement signed by Hon Kareto at the week end, the former Borno commissioner said, such terse statement from the minister’s media aide alleging that he (the minister) was misquoted, is not enough, but inviting Idris to Borno would also avail him the opportunity to personally tender apology to the government and people of Borno State.

Kareto expressed shock that the minister would sit at his comfort zone in Abuja and be dishing out statement himself or through his media aide on the subject matter. He insisted that such back-pedalling tactics were not enough to make the government and the people of Borno believe that he (Minister Idris) was actually misquoted.

“Let me inform the minister that such statement is not enough to cool the high tensions raised on the resilient Borno people who have trust and confidence on Governor Babagana Zulum’s good governance, this can be attested to numerous people-oriented projects and the unrelenting support in cash and kind to security agencies since 2019.

“Minister Idris has to come to Borno under my personal invitation to follow me to Damasak. This would avail him the opportunity to tender an unreserved apology and to tell Nigerians whether Governor Zulum, the Shehu of Borno, Dr Abubakar Garbai Al-Amin El-Kanemi and heads of security agencies who deliberated extensively on the renewed attacks, were better informed that Borno is losing ground to terrorists or not.”

Kareto urged Governor Zulum and the security agencies, especially the troops on the frontline not to be deterred by the minister’scomments but remain committed and focused in the fight against the renewed killings and other criminalities bedevilling many communities in the state.