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.”
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