Apparently still livid, Governor of Borno State yesterday took shots at former President Goodluck Jonathan who he accused him of being lukewarm with the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) project in the state.
Governor Kashim Shettima, who spoke through his deputy, Zanna Umar Mustapha at the government house in Maiduguri yesterday accused Jonathan of giving a mere N200 million to support the state within the last four years as against N4billion which was given to the Adamawa State government that did not suffer as much displacement from Boko Haram terror as Borno.
According to the governor, the monies dished out were paltry as the state government eventually spent about N11 billion to cater for the victims of insurgency.
Mustapha, who was speaking while receiving relief materials donated to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), said it was a good thing that Nigerians asked for change and a new government is now in place.
He said with the sack of 22 local government areas by insurgents, resulting in over one million displaced persons, the federal government under Jonathan only gave the state N200 million whereas Adamawa state which lost about six local government areas received about N4 billion from the federal government within the same period.
He said, “I must say here that the then federal government led by former president Goodluck Jonathan, did not pay attention to the people of Borno at all. For the four years that we were engaging the insurgents, the only thing the government gave us was N200 million. Jonathan and his entire cabinet were playing politics with issue of insurgency and Boko Haram in Borno. We lost 22 local government completely to insurgency, where as Adamawa state lost about six local governments and Adamawa state was given N4 billion.”
Continuing, Shettima also stated that the National Emergency Management Agency were busy rigmaroling through the state instead of taking full charge of the humanitarian situation of the displaced persons. He however noted that with the change of administration, NEMA officials visited the state some days ago, indicating readiness to now take over full responsibility of the situation.
