The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has promised practical measures to end Boko Haram insurgency and restore peace to Borno, if elected.
Atiku gave the assurance at the PDP residential rally on Wednesday in Maiduguri.
He said that if given the mandate, he would adopt effective security programmes to end insurgency, protect lives and property as well as enhance peace-building processes in the region.
Atiku said that he would initiate programmes to fast track rehabilitation, resettlement of displaced communities and address humanitarian crisis caused by the insurgency.
He added that the party had sound manifestos to reinvigorate agriculture, education, reduce poverty, enhance employment generation and create wealth.
Atiku promises to restore peace to Borno
“I will implement sound programmes to stimulate sustainable rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced communities. I will ensure safe return of displaced persons to their homes.
“We will implement practical programmes to transform agriculture and education to empower the youths and women for the improvement of social and economic status of the people,” Atiku said.
He called on security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure the conduct of transparent, free, fair and credible elections.
He also called on the electorate to vote for the PDP and its candidates, to enable the party win election at all levels.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the rally was attended by thousands of supporters including the PDP governorship candidate in the state, Alhaji Muhammad Imam, chairman of the party, Alhaji Zannan Gaddama, chieftains and candidates of the party.
NAN reports that Atiku’s campaign train had earlier held a similar rally in Damaturu, Yobe.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says the Air Task Force (ATF) of “Operation LAFIYA DOLE” has neutralized Boko Haram terrorist camps at Zanari and Tunbun Rego, in Borno.
Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, who disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, said that the operation was carried out on Monday.
"The NAF ATF of Operation LAFIYA DOLE has recorded further gains in the ongoing air interdiction operations designed to wipe out remnants of Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) within the fringes of Lake Chad.
"This occurred as the ATF on Aug.20 conducted air strikes on BHT camps at Zanari and Tunbun Rego in Borno State.
"The air strikes at Zanari were planned and executed based on intelligence reports indicating that the BHTs had established a training camp in the village and were converging in an area prior to departing for an attack on own troops locations around the Lake Chad area.
“Accordingly, the ATF scrambled II NAF Alpha Jet aircraft for a pre-emptive strike on two specified locations within Zanari, where the BHTs were assembled,” he said.
Daramola said that the fighter aircraft acquired and attacked both locations, neutralizing several BHTs, with only few survivors seen fleeing the area, adding that ” these were later mopped up by follow-on rocket strikes”.
"Similarly, another identified BHT rendezvous point and staging area on the outskirts of Tunbun Rego was also attacked and destroyed by the Alpha Jets,” the spokesman said.
He said that the NAF would continue to deploy its platforms to conduct intensive Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions in the entire Northeast aimed at discovering the possible locations of remnants of BHTs and neutralizing them.
Two suicide bombers killed three Muslim worshippers in a mosque in Bama town, Borno State, still being rebuilt after virtual destruction by Boko Haram in 2014, sources told AFP Sunday.
The bombers, a man and a woman, detonated their explosives inside the mosque during morning prayers on Saturday in the town.
The pair “blew themselves up in a mosque while people were praying, killing three people,” said Baba Shehu Gulumba, Bama local government chairman.
A senior military officer in Bama confirmed the death toll, adding that nine people were also injured.
“Some of the injured are in a critical condition and may hardly make it. They have been transferred to Maiduguri for better medical care,” said the military officer, who asked not to be named.
The attack came two weeks after residents began returning to the town which was destroyed by Boko Haram four years ago.
Bama, a major trading hub on the road to Cameroon and home to 270,000 people, was captured in September 2014, forcing residents to flee to Maiduguri, the state capital.
When it was retaken by the Nigerian military in March 2015, 85 percent of the town had been demolished by the jihadists.
Borno state officials said it would require 40 billion naira (94 million euros, $111 million) to rebuild the town, a staggering amount in the impoverished region.
According to officials 11,000 homes had been rebuilt which residents said represent one-third of those destroyed.
On April 5 the state’s information commissioner Mohammed Bulama said 1,200 people had returned to the town in a phased resettlement of the 100,000 displaced residents living in camps in Maiduguri.
Boko Haram has been notorious for suicide attacks on civilian and military targets in response to army offensives that have put pressure on the militant group.
Recent days have seen a lull in such attacks.
However on Friday 10 people including four militia fighting the militants were injured when two female suicide bombers attacked Amarwa village in Konduga district, 38 kilometres from Maiduguri, according to militia sources.
Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima has explained that the issues posed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is more urgent than those by Islamic Sect Boko Haram, and that is why he left his state to visit the South-East governors.
He said this in Owerri, where the delegation from the Northern Governors Forum met with Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, Nation reports.
It was reported on Monday that President Buhari had sent the delegation to meet with South-East governors in an effort to unite the nation.
The delegation, also including governors Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina, Aminu Waziri of Sokoto, Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, and Simon Lalong of Plateau, had earlier met with governors of Rivers and Abia States, Nyesom Wike and Okezie Ikpeazu.
Governor Shettima, in Owerri, said the purpose of their travel is to forestall a mass movement of Nigerians from one part of the country to another.
He said the urgency of the crisis was why he left the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency in his state, to join the other governors in the visit.
Remember that the Boko Haram sect has so far claimed responsibility for several attacks that have led to thousands of deaths.
They were also behind the infamous abduction of the 276 Chibok girls, over half of whom are still in their custody.
Recently, they attacked an oil exploration team, abducting 4 members of the staff of University of Maiduguri, all of whom are still in captivity.
Shettima, speaking at the meeting, said although, on Tuesday morning, 25 people were killed in his state, he was on the South-East mission because of what it means to the country. He said:
Only this morning, 25 people were killed in my state via explosions carried out by three suicide bombers, but I have to be on this mission because of what it means to the nation.
What we wanted to forestall actually was a mass movement of Nigerians from one part of the country to another. It was a very dangerous signal.
We equally invite our brothers from the South East to visit some of the northern flash points like Kaduna, Kano and Jos, and together we can talk to our Igbo brothers and sisters there to assure them of the safety of their lives and properties.
Make or break, this country belongs to all of us. The population of Syria is a paltry 22 million. Only 2 million Syrian refugees are knocking on the doors of Europe and it is causing reverberation. How then do you perceive a situation where 35 million English-speaking Nigerians are knocking on the doors of Europe?
That is why we have a moral obligation as stakeholders to make things work in this country. We are all part of the leadership challenges we are facing in this country, and none of us can exonerate him or herself from blame.
Like I said earlier in Aba, the hope of the black man rests not with the hard-thinking South Africans or the obsequious Kenyans who are struggling to be more white than the white men, but with the people of this country.
If you see an African walking on the streets of London and would not leave the way obsequiously for the white man to pass, you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that that black man is a Nigerian.
If we allow this country to implode, up is the Sahara Desert, Niger is already a failed state. The population of Niger is only 11 million while Kano has a population of about 30 million. We can eat up the entire food reserve of Niger Republic within a week.
Down is the Atlantic Ocean and the tiny countries of Benin Republic, Togo and Senegal. Maybe some of us will migrate to Gambia. The entire food reserves of those tiny West African countries can be exhausted within two weeks.
Shettima thanked the Imo State governor for the warm reception, while referring to him as a merchant of peace. He said:
In politics, perception counts and symbolism matters. So we are here largely to identify with our governor colleagues; to visit the northern communities in their states and to reassure them that our governor colleagues are equal to the task.
In fact, I had to pay a visit to the governor of Rivers State where we were earlier on, and Chief Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and, of course, the merchant of peace in Imo State (Okorocha) for rapidly responding to the emergency situations in their respective states by declaring dusk to dawn curfews. They equally stopped the nation from reaching the boiling point.
While we were in Rivers, we were not opportune to address the northern community. But in Aba and Umuahia, we were able to do so and thank the governor, because the reports we got directly from the northerners residents in Umuahia, Governor Ikpeazu had solved 70 per cent of their problems; that they had never had it so good of a governor that responded rapidly to the challenges they were facing in their communities.
Okorocha, in turn, thanked the delegation for their visit, and for promoting peace across the nation. He said:
Even between husband and wife, without communication, a break-up is inevitable. And we should not only communicate between ourselves as governors, we should also communicate with the ordinary citizens on the streets.
He added that the unrest in the South-East is a result of people’s perception that President Buhari would abandon that part of the nation, because they did not vote for him. He said:
As untrue as that may be, it remains the general feeling of the people in this part of the world. So, you coming to bridge the gap is a right step in the right direction.
Lance Corporal Hillary Joel was reported to have set a Boko Haram suspect ablaze, leading to his death during a cordon and search operation in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.
The soldier was found guilty of murder by the Army General Court Martial, Punch reports.
The other soldiers who faced the court martial with him include Private Chima Samuel for aiding and abetting the murder of a minor Yakubu Isah; and Sergent Samuel Balanga for desertion and miscellaneous offences.
They were handed sanctions which included demotions and jail terms.
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