Maiduguri Is Safer Than Abuja – Senator Ndume

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume, on Thursday, said Maiduguri is now safer than Abuja, the Nigeria Capital.

The Borno State capital has been severely hit by the insurgency war in the North-East of Nigeria. The war has been on for over a decade.

But the Senator while speaking on Channels Television’s programme, ‘Politics Today,' said the insurgents have been chased away from the state capital, and they only attack soft targets in other areas of Borno State.

“I live in Abuja and also live in Maiduguri,” he said. “Once I come to Maiduguri, I feel safer than in Abuja, because somebody can knock down your door with a gun. In Maiduguri, we don’t hear of that.

“It is outside Maiduguri where the insurgents are marauding around and attacking intermittently. And that’s normal with insurgents, that’s why they are called insurgents, they do hit and run on soft targets.”

Ndume added that “in every society, you can’t wipe out criminality completely. In America, there are school shootings. Our own is that we have known terrorists and the army is fighting them.”

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Army has repeatedly called for more funding for the army, noting that the situation seemed to be improving with the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to the welfare of the fighting troops.

“With the new budget, things will soon change,” he said.

The comment of Senator Ndume came on the day President Muhammadu Buhari Borno State. Ndume described the visit as a boost to the morale of the Nigerian soldiers.

He praised President Buhari, saying that, “The President went round for six hours – I was tired. He came at 10 o’clock and we were going to see various projects until four o’clock this evening before he left.”

He also commended Buhari’s bold welfare plans for the state, adding that the decision to build 10,000 houses for displaced persons and other provisions such as financing for a power plant.

He then urged the Buhari’s administration to “walk the talk” and ensure the fast-tracking of the financing of the army operations, especially the acquisition of the improved fighting equipment

“We should now walk the talk by accelerating the release of funds on time,” Senator Ndume said. “The army now has the numbers.”

He noted that the apparent death of the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, ISWAP terrorist group appeared to have replaced Boko Haram as the new face of insurgency in the region.

“ISWAP is more deadly, more sophisticated, have an international connection, access to military armament and the likes, but the other side of them is that they don’t kill civilians indiscriminately like the Boko Haram and in fact, that was what ignited the fight between the ISWAP and the Shekau group,” Ndume said.

“Now the Shekau group has been virtually eliminated, it means that our Nigerian troops are going to face what they know specifically.

“What was frustrating them most was the indiscriminate killing of civilians and other soft targets, destruction of public property by Boko Haram.

“But now that the ISWAP is saying we are just going after the military or the armed forces or the security agencies. Our security agencies are up to the task; Our security agencies are up to the task and ready for them. They have engaged themselves and (ISWAP) have suffered serious casualties.”