The Lower Chamber of the National Assembly, yesterday passed a resolution in which it reminded the Federal authorities that a number of local government areas in Borno State were still being controlled by the outlawed Boko Haram sect.
In the resolution, the lawmakers called for the redeployment of additional troops into the towns and villages that the insurgents seized in August and September.
Rep Abdurrahman Terab (PDP, Borno), who moved a motion that led to the decision of the House, said Ngala, Kala-Balge and Bama LGAs, which form his constituency, are still being controlled by the insurgents, contrary to claims that they had been recaptured.
“Contrary to earlier reports that the said local government areas were reclaimed by the Nigerian government and are now under the control of Nigerian troops, they are still under the control of the Boko Haram,” he said.
The lawmakers noted that as a result of the seizure of the local governments in his constituency, arbitrary killings are going on there and that the insurgents are enforcing their own laws on people.
“Young women and teenage girls are not being spared, as they are facing all sorts of abuses, torture and forced marriages,” the lawmaker added.
Terab said people who fled the overrun areas into Cameroon, “numbering almost 200,000 and who are mostly from Ngala and Kala-Balge local government areas, are living without basic requirements, like food and shelter.”
Soon, after Terab presented his motion, Rep. Forte Dike (PDP, Anambra) opposed passing it, contending that there have been “incontrovertible statements in the media, saying that the areas are no longer under Boko Haram control.”
But lawmakers shouted him down, and thereafter resoundingly voted in support of the motion when it was put to vote by Speaker- Aminu Tambuwal.
In its resolution, the House also urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to liaise with Cameroon in providing relief materials to refugees from Borno, who are now staying in Cameroonian towns.
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