The Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, on Wednesday temporarily
moved his office to Bama, a town badly destroyed by the Boko Haram.
Mr. Shettima, who arrived Bama on Wednesday afternoon, said the
destroyed city, the third largest in the state, would from Wednesday
become the seat of Borno State government till he is done with his
supervision of the reconstruction job.
“My office is now here”, Mr. Shettima said. “I decided to relocate
here to live here and supervise reconstruction works. I will administer
Borno State from here.
Though the governor was not specific about how long he intends to
stay in the unsecured community around which Boko Haram attacks were
recorded regularly, he indicated that he would not be returning to the
state capital in the next few days.
“I am fully prepared to be here for days to come, one week, two weeks or even more.
“I will not leave until we are able to rebuild a good number of
private houses, municipal buildings, markets, schools and clinics. I
want the reconstruction work to take proper shape before I leave.
“We cannot wait till forever before we reclaim our destiny. Bama is
one of the worst affected areas and we will move from here to other
parts of the state.
“While I am here, we have a full structure of Government in place
operating in Maiduguri so that activities of managing IDP’S, civil
service, implementation of government policies and programmes will
continue while I am here. I will be in constant touch with Maiduguri, I
came prepared,” Mr. Shettima said.
Justifying the governor’s relocation to Bama, 74 kilometres from the
state capital, his spokesperson, Isa Gusau, explained that “insurgents
had attacked the town killing dozens, destroyed more than 80 per cent
of the thousands of houses in the town, sacked the Emir and took over
his palace after declaring it as sovereign territory with set of laws
and ‘constitutional’ leader.
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