Borno State Governor, Kashim
Shettima on Wednesday temporarily relocated his office to Bama town, an
urban centre, severely destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents during their
nearly two years occupation before it was liberated by the military
late, 2015. Bama town, located 74 kilometers away from Maiduguri, is one
of the third most populated local government areas next to Maiduguri
Metropolitan Council and Biu in southern part of the State.
Insurgents
had attacked the town killing dozens, destroyed more than 80 percent
of the thousands of houses in the town, sacked the Emir and took over
his palace after declaring it as sovereign territory with set of laws
and ‘constitutional’ leader. The military toppled the insurgents and
recovered the area by the end of 2015, months after President Muhammadu
Buhari took over affairs.
To
fast track major reconstruction works which was flagged off on
Wednesday, Governor Kashim Shettima now lives in Bama town with his
close aides. The Governor departed Maiduguri at about 12:10pm and
arrived Bama at about 2:18 pm and he went straight to supervising
inspect reconstruction works on private residential houses, police
stations, stores, schools, hospitals, the Emirs palace among others. The
Governor had deployed construction equipment and hundreds of trucks of
variety of building materials which are already in Bama for the
reconstruction works.
“My
office is now here. I decided to relocate here to live here and
supervise reconstruction works. I will administer Borno State from here.
I am fully prepared to be here for days to come, one week, two weeks or
even more. I will not leave until we are able to rebuild a good number
of private houses, municipal buildings, markets, schools and clinics. I
want the reconstruction work to take proper shape before I leave. We
cannot wait till forever before we reclaim our destiny. Bama is the one
of the worst affected areas and we will move from here to other parts of
the State. While I am here, we have a full structure of Government in
place operating in Maiduguri so that activities of managing IDP’S, civil
service, implementation of Government policies and programmes will
continue while I am here. I will be in constant touch with Maiduguri, I
came prepared” Shettima said
The
Governor also commissioned 500 newly recruited civilian JTF and
vigilantes employed from locals in Bama to use community intelligence in
working with the military to strengthen security in the area so as to
forestall unanticipated attacks.
Earlier,
the Commissioner for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement,
Dr Babagana Umara Zulum announced that the reconstruction activities has
created nearly 1000 direct jobs beside stimulating the economy of the
State through procurements of different building materials and payment
for services.
The
Commissioner said with the support his Ministry receives from Governor
Kashim Shettima, his men were fully ready to make the Governor proud. He
gave the indication that Shettima was bound to see new developments
every day he goes out for inspection.