Ayodele Olalere
Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, has said that the federal government has not been able to wipe out the Boko Haram insurgents because some people are benefiting from the terrorists activities and does not want it to end.
While speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa, Zulum said those benefiting financially from the continued activities of the insurgents are working against the federal government’s efforts to end it.
“There are people who don’t want this insecurity to end because they will not be happy with that,” he said.
While he Zulum did not specifically mention names of those profiting from the crisis, he noted that members of the Boko Haram groups who had earlier ran to Chad after the heat from the Nigerian troops are making a comeback after being flushed out from Chad.
He called on people to unite and support the security operatives in order to address the Boko Haram menace.
Boko Haram‘ meaning ‘Western education is a sin’ is an Islamist group in the northeast founded around 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and largest city in Northeast Nigeria.
The group turned into a terrorist group in July 2009, when it began an uprising in Bauchi and spread it’s teachings to other northern states, gaining hundreds of followers.
In 2010, it began attacking public infrastructure and went into collision with security agencies in the northeast, bombings, mass shootings, and executing captured citizens against their activities.
In May 2013, the then President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa.
The group has killed thousands of Nigerians in the region. In spite of several billions of naira spent by the federal government to stop the insurgency, it has not been able to wipe them out.
This has given birth to more terrorist groups that have been terrorising the region resulting in food shortages and health issues.
Several people have been displaced in the region with many northerners relocating to the southern parts of the country which has experienced relative peace.
