PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has warned members of the Borno Elders Forum (BOEF), religious and traditional leaders against the "immediate withdrawals" of men of Joint Task Force (JTF) and other security agencies protecting people's lives and property against the Boko Haram insurgents in the state.
Jonathan handed down the warning Friday at a town hall meeting with stakeholders comprising top government officials, National and State Houses of Assembly members, and elders at the Multi-purpose Hall of Government House, Maiduguri.
Stakeholders who spoke on the Boko Haram insurgency and how to end it included Prof. Mohammed Nur Alkali, who represented the elders; state Chairman of People's Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Baba Basharu; Hon. Mohammed Tahir Monguno, representing Marte/Monguno/Nganzai constituency, and Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno. They demanded that the soldiers be withdrawn from the streets, roads and public places.
But piqued by the implications of the withdrawals, Jonathan said: "This is no time to play to the gallery whether you are a politician or not. I am not comfortable. I have been very frank. Your conclusion is that there are so many bunkers in Borno State. Why did the bunkers come? Who want to send bunkers to Borno State?"
Reiterating the need for the JTF to protect of lives and property, Jonathan said: "If the circumstances that brought the soldiers are no longer there, that day they will leave. The soldiers were not there in 2001, 2002, 2003, and up to 2009; and that was when the leader of Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Yusuf was killed. And that was the beginning of the crisis."
With the caliber of weapons the Boko Haram members are using, according the President, the police alone cannot fight them. "Government will not sit down quiet and wait for some people to take up arms in any part of this country." He said this will never happen, whether in the Niger Delta or any part of Nigeria.
Speaking on the killings of soldiers, Jonathan said: "I have given directives to the security services that I don't want to hear that one soldier is killed in the Niger Delta. I don't want to hear that one soldier is killed in the South-East, or kidnapped. And I don't want to hear a soldier is killed in Borno State or any part of this country."
He said that the soldiers leave their family members, stay on roads and bushes to protect people's lives and property.
In his earlier remarks, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State said: "The decisions a leader has to take are sometimes very tough. Most often, the leader (President) knows what others may not know and painfully sometimes, he is not at liberty to explain what he knows because what he knows may not be too good to know."
The Guardian
JTF shouldn't be rendered inactive. They're doing a good job so far as far as i'm concerned. They need to have a rethink