President Goodluck Jonathan has accused Northern Leaders of shielding Boko Haram members, insisting that insecurity will not end in the North with such behaviors.<\/p>\n
President Jonathan who is in Borno state on a state visit, urged politicians and elders\u00a0 from the north, especially those in the Boko Haram flash points, to stop playing to the gallery on the issue of insecurity in the zone.<\/p>\n
Jonathan insisted that unless the leaders in that zone cooperate with the Federal Government, condemn the activities of Boko Haram, and assist in smoking them out,\u00a0 innocent citizens would continue to be victims in that zone.<\/p>\n
According to the President \u201c So, if we the elders of Borno state will not condemn it, we will continue to suffer under the terror of Boko Haram and without stopping Boko Hram, without peace in Borno state, we cannot develop Borno state. Who will come and invest in Borno state. If you award\u00a0 a road contract, who will come and work? Nobody. So let us not play to the gallery\u201d.<\/p>\n
He enjoined the people to join hands with the government to fish out the perpetrators of\u00a0 criminal conducts just as he reminded them that the issue of amnesty is now out of the equation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day you declare amnesty, people with high hopes will come out and somebody is shot. This will diminish government. Somebody came and said he was Boko Haram and said he was ready for dialogue and was ready for this.<\/p>\n
The next day, they shot the Emir of Kano. So assuming I declare amnesty and we celebrate it and the next day the shot a very important personality of this country\u201d he said<\/p>\n
On the allegations and accusations by some northern leaders that the JTF was killing innocent people, and that their presence is intimidating citizens Jonathan insisted that the Joint Task Force, JTF, would\u00a0 not leave Borno state until there is an undertaking by elders of the state that Boko haram has been caged.<\/p>\n
He said \u201cIf the elders agree now to come and sign agreement with me, I will move out all the JTF. But if anybody die in Borno state, I will hold them responsible. I will sign and I will move and I will do it. But don\u2019t go to court and ask one court to come and remove the JTF. If somebody dies, then I will take you. I\u2019m going to remove the JTF but come and sign and guarantee the safety of lives and property of individuals. If you do that, today as I\u2019m going, JTF will start going back to their barracks\u201d, he informed.<\/p>\n
He warned that, \u201cbut you must guarantee that, if anything happen to anybody that you must be held responsible because no meaningful government can allow that degree of insurgency. It may cost us the politicians to say the truth but we must say the truth. We are not just elected to be playing to the gallery.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us not play to the gallery. We have security issues. I have toured this country. Yesterday I visited Yobe state and from what the governor said, the Boko Haram incidence in Yobe state is coming down, especially in Damaturu.\u00a0 In Adamawa state, it is coming down. Gombe state it is coming down. Even in Bauchi state, it is coming down. Niger state, it is coming down.\u00a0 But in Borno sate, we still have a lot of challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
He expressed concern that money that should have been channeled into other ventures are now used to pay for the allowances of the JTF.<\/p>\n
\u201cMyself and any head of the security agencies will not want to pay one day allowance to anybody. We need that money to do other important things that will change the economy of this country. We need that money to fund agriculture that will create across this country including Borno state. We are not happy to spending so much money in the Niger Delta keeping JTF there. We are not happy to be spending so much money keeping JTF in Borno state and other places. Definitely, we are not\u201d, he pointed out.<\/p>\n
While responding to issues raised by elders and opinion leaders of the state, President Jonathan assured them of his commitment to work with the people of Borno state by going into productive ventures that will uplift the standard of living of all and sundry.<\/p>\n
He promised to assist in rehabilitating all the educational, religious and economic institutions across the region that were burnt down during the heat of the attacks just as he told the gathering that they have a genuine reason to canvass for oil exploration activities in the Lake Chad basin.<\/p>\n
The President however warned that, throughout the world no meaningful activity take place in an area prevailed by anarchy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Goodluck Jonathan has accused Northern Leaders of shielding Boko Haram members, insisting that insecurity will not end in the North with such behaviors. President Jonathan who is in Borno…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n