SHEHU of Borno, Abubakar El-Kanemi, has described the insurgency in the country as the handiwork of foreigners who penetrated the North-East under the pretense of seeking Quranic education.
El-Kanemi spoke at a town hall meeting organized by Yateem Faqueer Global Foundation in Abuja on Thursday, December 8.
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“Borno has witnessed so many things, both good and bad. Boko Haram is something meaningless, mindless and without any sense of direction as none of the holy books, neither the Quran nor the Bible commands you to disrespect others, burn, or destroy their property. And I want people to understand that Boko Haram was never founded or initiated by people from the North-East zone. It is something they just brought to us out of nowhere.
“Honestly, we have suffered, the people have suffered. The palaces of our emirs were destroyed, and some of them were killed, including other traditional rulers, and religious leaders and so many other people were killed. There are numerous issues in the North-East. But before we had this administration, out of the 27 local governments in Borno, 17 were under the control of Boko Haram. But now, no local government in Borno is under the control of Boko Haram.”
Former Chief of Army Staff, General Alwali Kazir (retd), refuted insinuations that the bandits and other armed criminal gangs operating in parts of the country were the offshoots of Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East, saying that apparent ideological differences separated them.
However, he recommended both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches in addressing the problem.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairperson of the Foundation, Hajiya Yagana Hassan, said the mission of the humanitarian organization was to serve humanity and to provide sustainable economic assistance to communities affected by insecurity to help them fight extreme poverty amongst other challenges.
