Boko Haram: 'Politicians plan to use insurgents to create tension in Borno' - Group

A civil society group says it has uncovered plans by some unscrupulous politicians in Borno State to use the Boko Haram sect to cause confusion.

A civil society organization, the National Forum of Democrats [NFD], has raised an alarm that some politicians in Borno State are planning to create tension ahead of the 2019 general elections through the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents.

The national leader of NDF, Alhaji Gambo Dambata, who addressed a press conference in Abuja on Saturday, October 28, 2017, said some politicians who have been benefiting from 'the old order' were trying to draw back the hands of the clock to return Nigeria to the era of gloom.

Alhaji Dambata alleged that the calculation of such persons is to sponsor publications in both print and electronic media in conjunction with some organizations, that Boko Haram is occupying certain territories in Nigeria so as to generate a security report that would make INEC shelve the 2019 polls in the state.

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The statement which Alhaji Danbatta signed on behalf of the group, reads:

“Borno State, as you all know, has been at the receiving end of the Boko Haram scourge since the group turned violent in 2009.

Prior to this, Borno had been one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria with the capital, Maiduguri, being a home to all and sundry, irrespective of religious or ethnic background.

You may have noticed reports in some quarters about re-taking of some territories in Borno State allegedly by Boko Haram.

This subtle campaign which appears to draw sympathy to the local population in the said territories is nothing but an orchestrated narrative to set in a sinister agenda for the manipulation of the forthcoming general elections and to hoodwink multilateral agencies and other humanitarian organization into donating funds for diversion and use by these elements.

But we ask; how possible it is for the insurgents to re-take territories in the current circumstances where the insurgents have been terribly weakened and downgraded that they have resorted to bombing soft targets?

Such people forget that Nigerians are not so gullible and that people are aware that since the President ordered the service Chiefs to relocate to the North-east, the military has not lost ground on any territory but has consolidated its grip in holding forte recovered territories to the jubilation of the populace.

This group has taken a tour of the North-east and can confirm authoritatively that the 13 LGAs once held by Boko Haram in 2015 have all been liberated.

We can also confirm that serious-minded humanitarian organizations are on the ground giving help while economic activities have returned to its old order and life booming for the people again.

One is therefore at a loss why these political losers think they can hatch a new plot to play on the sensibility of well-meaning Nigerians and try to diminish the success of the war against the insurgency by the Muhammadu Buhari led Administration.

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We urge Borno politicians to forget about holding elections in IDP camps as there is a deliberate plot by some selfish politicians to sponsor attacks across the North-east in the name of Boko Haram just to cause panic, apprehension, and pandemonium in the state to give room for elections to hold in IDP camps where they can easily manipulate the results in favour of their preferred candidates.”