Secretary to the Borno State Government, SSG, Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda,
\nhas described the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic
\nParty, PDP, Alhaji Adamu Ahmed Muazu,
\nas a pathological liar, for saying Governor Kashim Shettima ignored
\nwarnings not to allow exams go on in Chibok.<\/p>\n
Muazu was on Channels Television in an interview where he alleged that
\nGovernor Shettima knows there was a letter from both the WAEC and the
\neducation minister, specifically telling him that Government Secondary
\nChibok was not safe for the 2014 WAEC exams but he (Shettima) disregarded
\nit.<\/p>\n
However, speaking with Journalists in Lagos yesterday, Jidda, who showed
\nthe reporters the purported letters from both the minister and WAEC,
\nchallenged Nigerian Journalists to ask Muazu and his likes to produce the
\nletters they are referring to, which asked the State government not to
\nconduct exams at Chibok.<\/p>\n
Instead, the SSG showed the reporters the letter the Borno Government
\nwrote to the Police, asking it to provide security on daily basis, to all
\nexams centres, including the school in Chibok, based on the request, made
\nby WAEC.<\/p>\n
“I did not know Muazu a former Governor in the northeast that is suffering
\nfrom this crisis, to be a
\npathological liar. I don’t know if any of you watched the Channels
\nTelevision today, (Thursday), they showed Muazu telling lies for me to
\nreact, it was on air, the world saw him misleading the world, I took the
\nletters he is misquoting with me and the panellists all read it. There was
\nno where any of the letters asked us not to conduct exams in Chibok. This
\nis the letter, all of you should look at it. Muazu didn’t read the letter
\nbefore he went to the media to speak out of outright ignorance and
\nfalsehood. This is very unfortunate.<\/p>\n
“In any case, the minister does not even have the locus standi to direct
\nthe governor on such matters. We provided logistics as requested by WAEC.
\nWe wrote the Police too, to provide security on daily basis, as per the
\nrequest from WAEC to all the centers through out the duration of the exams
\nas per WAEC request.<\/p>\n
“But let me reiterate here that at no time did we receive any letter
\neither from the police, WAEC or even the minister, advising us not to hold
\nthe exams in Chibok. At any rate, as at the time of the exams, Chibok was
\nconsidered as one of the safest locations in the State.<\/p>\n
“In actual fact the minister’s letter only asked that security be provided
\nfor WAEC officials in Federal
\ngovernment colleges in Borno State. The letter did not request that
\nsecurity be provided for students, let alone Chibok students. Here is a
\ncopy of the letter, you go through it and make your own
\njudgment.<\/p>\n
“So, I see Muazu’s claim as not only ridiculous, but one that smacks of
\nmischief. I have known him for a long time, but I did not know he could go
\nto this length, all in the name of politics.<\/p>\n
“But he should know that he should not be dabbling into executive matters.
\nHe is a Chairman of a political party not the SGF, May be, we will ask our
\nNational Chairman, chief
\nBisi Akande, to also reply him,” the SSG, added.<\/p>\n
On the claim by Muazu that the governor was not in the country at the time
\nJonathan was to visit Chibok, Jidda again said, it was not true.<\/p>\n
According to him: ” I am in Lagos now for something else, but here I am
\ntalking to you. This was not what brought me, but it just happened. So
\nthat was what transpired when my governor went to London. He was in London
\nfor a follow up scheduled meeting with a company on supply of water
\nsystems for irrigation and borehole drilling, specifically he was there to
\nmeet with executives of Dando super rigs which can drill up to 1,500
\nmetres deep very suitable for Borno and it was a meeting that needed his
\nexecutive presence which in a way was also to fight insurgency through
\nirrigation agriculture, he was not in London just to grant interviews, he
\nwas in London for a different purpose, I was there with him to sign MOU
\nafter executive decision by him. But there were enquiries here and there
\nby the media and he took advantage of it to speak.”<\/p>\n
“Before Governor Shettima appeared on CNN, Minister Labaran Maku was on
\nCNN, Doyin Okupe was on CNN,‎ Mike Omeri was on CNN, so if
\nappointees were right to speak on CNN, was is wrong about an elected
\nGovernor voted by millions of Borno people speaking on CNN? It doesn’t
\nmatter if the Maku’s spoke to CNN in Nigeria and the Governor spoke
\nabroad, the CNN showed the contents of all the interviews on the same
\ninternational platform to the same category of audience but Muazu took
\nexception to Governor Shettima\u2019s appearance on CNN, saying he spoke abroad
\nwhereas Muazu granted his own interview in South Africa” the SSG
\nexplained.<\/p>\n
Reacting to question on allegations that the Governor flew out of the
\ncountry to stop President Jonathan’s planned visit to Chibok, the SSG
\nsaid, the story wasn’t true.<\/p>\n
“While we were in London for a visit of less than 48 hours as soon as we
\ngot information that the President would on his way to France, stop over
\nin Chibok, my governor cut short his trip to
\nreturn to Borno. And while we were waiting to receive the President, we
\ngot the information that the visit had been called off. They actually
\nwrote to us giving us just a day notice which is unusual but perhaps for
\nsecurity reasons they planned it so and we were in Maiduguri with the
\nGovernor, he waited at the airport after his arrival from London through
\nAbuja to Maiduguri<\/p>\n
“In fact, I was even telling the governor before we returned to Borno that
\nnormally, if the President was going on a state visit, they give at least
\none week notice, to prepare. But in this one, we had less than 24 hours
\nnotice. And my governor said we just have to return irrespective of the
\nshort
\nnotice.<\/p>\n
“So this shows you the governor is willing and ready to cooperate with the
\nFederal government to end this insurgency. And I must say that we must
\nstop the blame game now, and concentrate our energies on how to bring back
\nour daughters who are still in captivity. If not for the lies being told
\nevery now and again, we never wanted to make these letters public. But we
\nhave been pushed to the wall, that is why we are doing this now,” the SSG,
\ndeclared.<\/p>\n
Jidda explained that Borno State Government and it’s people have been the
\nvictims of the Boko Haram insurgency but are being made to look like the
\naccused persons. He noted that Borno State Government has spent over ten
\nbillion naira funding military activities rather than use the funds for
\nother critical sectors. The amount he said does not include so much being
\nspent in reconstruction of markets, community residences, schools,
\nhospitals, shops destroyed by Boko Haram as well as funds provided as
\nimmediate palliative to victims and bereaved families. He noted
\nthat Borno Government has provided the most exceptional of supports to the
\nmilitary.<\/p>\n
On allegations by the spokesman of the Defence headquarters, General
\nOlukolade that Shettima misleads the military with some information, the
\nSSG said “when Governor Shettima uses local sources to get information he
\npasses on to the Military, it is expected as per procedures that the
\nmilitary will process the information to produce intelligence and that
\nwill require making analysis, comparing information with other sources,
\ncross checking with sister security agencies before acting unless if
\nsomeone didn’t do his job well.<\/p>\n
According to him, “then, it depends on how fast you act when you are
\nprovided with information, if you are for instance given information today
\nand it took days to process to get intelligence before acting or if you
\neven refused to process the information at all the get intelligence that
\nis your fault. ‎It also depends on the technology you deploy in your
\nsurveillance and also the time it took you to do the surveillance, the
\nperiod you did whether night or day and whether you used the right
\nequipment for the day or night, so it is subject to so many procedures
\nthat can be instant or delayed depending on level of effectiveness and
\nefficiency.”<\/p>\n
“The question of misleading doesn’t arise at all. The defence headquarters
\nonce said in 2013 that Governor Shettima was one of those providing not
\njust serious material support to the military but also supporting with
\ncredible information, the director of operations one General Lawrence said
\nso and it was reported, so we shouldn’t twist things now. The Governor is
\nhighly committed, the military knows that”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secretary to the Borno State Government, SSG, Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda, has described the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Adamu Ahmed Muazu, as a pathological…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n