• Sets up panel for IDPs’ return to Baga
• To demolish 1,300 houses in Maiduguri, Jere

Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum has attributed arms proliferation and insurgency in the North East to porous borders with neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroun.

Zulum raised the alarm yesterday when the president of Alumni Association of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (AANIPSS), IGP Mohammed Abubakar (rtd.) visited him at Government House, Maiduguri. He maintained that without efficient manning of international borders by security agencies, terrorism could linger unabated with continued loss of life and property.

“The lingering Boko Haram crisis has led to the untimely death of unspecified number of gallant and sacrificial troops,” he said, noting that many civilians were killed while houses and public structures worth N3.42 trillion were destroyed in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

He said the state government would, however, continue to do its best by supporting the military and other security agencies to fight Boko Haram.

MEANWHILE, he has inaugurated a committee to return Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to Baga on the shores of Lake Chad.
While inaugurating the 23-member committee on yesterday in Maiduguri, Zulum disclosed: “A letter was received from the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, notifying the desire of the people to relocate from IDP camps and other communities to Baga town.”

The panel, saddled with six-point terms of reference, comprises top federal and state government functionaries, traditional rulers armed forces and paramilitary operatives.

BORNO has marked 1,300 houses for demolition in Maiduguri Metropolitan and Jere councils.The marked houses were reportedly built on the waterways and banks of River Nggadabul.

Executive Secretary, Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), Adam Bababe, disclosed this at the weekend in Maiduguri while briefing journalists on the dangers of blocking waterways and flood plains with illegal structures.

According to him, since the commencement of the rainy season this year, some parts of the metropolis on river banks have been submerged.

The flooding in the two councils calls for urgent attention to protect people’s lives and properties, he said. The agency since its inauguration last March, he added, generated N200 million from ground rents. He further disclosed that the state targeted about N1 billion revenue this year.

“There is nothing like witch-hunting or religious sentiments associated with BOGIS’s demolition exercise,” he said, adding that the agency had fruitful discussions with the leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).