Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima on Wednesday temporarily relocated his office to Bama town, an urban centre, severely destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents during their nearly two years occupation before it was liberated by the military late, 2015.
Bama town, located 74 kilometers away from Maiduguri, is one of the third most populated local government areas next to Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Biu in southern part of the State. Insurgents had attacked the town killing dozens, destroyed more than 80 percent of the thousands of houses in the town, sacked the Emir and took over his palace after declaring it as sovereign territory with set of laws and ‘constitutional’ leader. The military toppled the insurgents and recovered the area by the end of 2015, months after President Muhammadu Buhari took over affairs.
To fast track major reconstruction works which was flagged off on Wednesday, Governor Kashim Shettima now lives in Bama town with his close aides. The Governor departed Maiduguri at about 12:10pm and arrived Bama at about 2:18 pm and he went straight to inspect reconstruction works on private residential houses, police stations, stores, schools, hospitals, the Emirs palace among others. The Governor had deployed construction equipment and hundreds of trucks of variety of building materials which are already in Bama for the reconstruction works.
“My office is now here. I decided to relocate here to live here and supervise reconstruction works. I will administer Borno State from here. I am fully prepared to be here for days to come, one week, two weeks or even more. I will not leave until we are able to rebuild a good number of private houses, municipal buildings, markets, schools and clinics. I want the reconstruction work to take proper shape before I leave. We cannot wait till forever before we reclaim our destiny. Bama is the one of the worst affected areas and we will move from here to other parts of the State. While I am here, we have a full structure of Government in place operating in Maiduguri so that activities of managing IDP’S, civil service, implementation of Government policies and programmes will continue while I am here. I will be in constant touch with Maiduguri, I came prepared” Shettima said
The Governor also commissioned 500 newly recruited civilian JTF and vigilantes employed from locals in Bama to use community intelligence in working with the military to strengthen security in the area so as to forestall unanticipated attacks.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Dr Babagana Umara Zulum announced that the reconstruction activities has created nearly 1000 direct jobs beside stimulating the economy of the State through procurements of different building materials and payment for services.
The Commissioner said with the support his Ministry receives from Governor Kashim Shettima, his men were fully ready to make the Governor proud. He gave the indication that Shettima was bound to see new developments every day he goes out for inspection.
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