Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno on Sunday appealed to the Nigerian military to intensify efforts to end the Boko Haram insurgency that had ravaged the North East for long.
Shettima made the appeal while speaking at this year’s Eid el Fitr reception for members of the State Executive Council and other dignitaries at the Government House Maiduguri.
He said although the military had recorded tremendous successes against the insurgents, the recent spate of attacks in different parts of the state was worrisome.
“We have to commend President Muhammadu Buhari and the military for their efforts in fighting the Boko Haram insurgents.
“But in the last two weeks, we have had tremendous security challenges in Damboa, in Chibok, in Maiduguri and in all nooks and crannies of the state.
“We were literary attacked by the insurgents from different angles.
“Yes, we had recorded lots of successes before’’.
Shettima urged the military to strive hard and contain the recent wave of attacks by the insurgents.
“We witnessed lots of setbacks in a short while. All hands must be on deck for us to have lasting peace in this part of the world.
“It is not for us to take two steps forward and one step backwards, it is not for us to wake up to be reluctant to open our phones for fear of getting uncomplimentary stories about attacks in the state,’’ he said.
Shettima said that government would continue to reach out to security establishments toward ending the problem.
“We would continue talking with the security establishments toward coming up with robust platform to address the security challenge that had refused to go.
“We hope that by the grace of God, in the coming weeks and months we would get over it because it is a fight between the good and the evil,” he said.
Shettima also apologised to the state workers for not receiving their salaries before the Eid el Fitr celebration.
“We had some technical hitches with the payment of salaries this month, we actually wanted to pay last Friday but the system failed to upload the salaries of our civil servants,’’ he said.
Shettima expressed concern about the inability of the government to pay the salaries before Sallah.
“I want to apologise to our workers because this is a society that is largely driven by payment of salaries.
“Pentioners have gotten their pay, the Civilian JTF members were also paid cash on Friday,” he said.
Shettima, however, promised that the workers would be paid on Wednesday unfailingly. (NAN)
ABI/EEE
=======