The Deputy Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Zanna Umar Mustapha, has described the much-speculated plea for negotiations with the Federal Government by the Boko Haram insurgents as a welcome idea, if the insurgents actually mean business.
Mustapha disclosed this to journalists in Yola, Adamawa state capital, shortly after returning from the Adamawa Burnt Bricks camp in Mubi South, where 12,000 Nigerian refugees returning from Cameroon Republic who are mostly indigenes of Borno state, are encamped.
Mustapha, accompanied by the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Sani Sidi to Mubi, said he also heard and learnt of the speculated plea for negotiations from the insurgents in the media.
“I heard and read from the media of the said plea for negotiations by the insurgents, but sincerely speaking I do not know its source; no authenticity of the speculation”, he declared. He added “If they want to negotiate and drop their arms and terrorist tendencies, I believe there is no problem”.
The Deputy Governor maintained that if the insurgents are tired and they want true and sincere negotiations, it is left to the Federal Government to accept or reject their advances, depending on the genuineness of their approach. Mustapha while addressing the returnees camped in Mubi South disclosed that 3, 488 have so far returned to Nigeria via Mubi a border town to Cameroon. He said they had been refugees in Cameroon after the attack by the Boko Haram terrorist group, and they were mostly from Gomboru Ngala in Borno State.
The deputy governor said they will identify with the plights of the returnees, promising that they would be evacuated from Adamawa after they must have been thoroughly searched and screened. He disclosed that they would temporarily be camped at Fufure and Malkohi designed camps in Adamawa State where they would be searched and screened by security agencies.
According to him, the returnees would be distributed to the 22 camps within Maiduguri. He commended the military and other security agencies in Adamawa and Borno States for their collaborative efforts in curbing insurgency in the North-east region of the country but appealed to them that more efforts should be intensified to address insurgency in Nigeria.
Mustapha was in Adamawa State in December 2014 where he paid a similar visit and commiserated with the IDPs, Askira Uba, Lassa, Chibok and some displaced persons taking refuge in Girei and Damare, and assured them that more IDPs of Borno extraction would be evacuated soon.
He said he was in Adamawa State to identify with thousands of Borno State indigenes evacuated from the Republic of Cameroon occasioned by insurgency attacks, and observed that cessation of hostilities by the insurgents will surely bring sanity to the society, especially the North-east sub region and particularly Borno state, which is worst hit by the insurgency attacks.
But, he was quick to add that accepting the speculations for negotiations or not lie solely with the federal government and the Nigerian Armed forces. Also speaking to the returnees, the NEMA boss, Alhaji Sidi, assured them that collaborative efforts were being made by government agencies toward ensuring that the sufferings were alleviated through provision of food and shelter.
