Sultan of Sokoto and Co-Chairman of National Council of Traditional Rulers, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, has charged the Nigerian military to take full physical occupation of the Lake Chad region and the Sambisa Forest, the two encclaves believed to be haven for Boko Haram/Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists.
Sultan Abubakar, a retired Brigadier General, spoke when he led his colleagues from the South and Northern part of the country on a condolence visit to the Borno State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, in Maiduguri visit over the recent terrorists’ killings in the State.
Those in Sultan’s entourage include Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemaka Alfred Ugochukwu, Oba Adekunle Adebayo, Ore of Otin, Emir of Hadeja, Dr. Adamu Abubakar Maje, Emir of Fika, Mohammed Abale Ibn Mohammed Idrissa, and Amanyanabo of Opobo Kingdom, King Dr. Dandasen Douglas Jaja.
“I read about the comment the governor made some few weeks ago, challenging the military to take the fight to the Lake Chad to clear that place. Your Excellency while I was a Lieutenant, I was at Lake Chad in Baga for six months, my battalion in Bama used to rotate with the battalion in Monguno and Maiduguri every six months.
“We occupied Lake Chad part of Nigeria for six months. I was a Lieutenant, I was the operation officer and I have my maps. In Lake Chad that time, we had 36 islands under Nigeria, we occupied 16 of them, the biggest was king Nasara, and we controlled that part of Nigeria effectively well as a battalion.
“Now I don’t know why we can’t occupy the whole of Lake Chad and why we can’t occupy the whole of Sambisa forest. If we want peace we have to dominate these areas. If we want peace, we have to do away with those terrorists who occupy that place and see nothing good in other people except those that believe in their own negative ideas” the Sultan said.
Sultan Abubakar also said they were in Maiduguri not only to commiserate with the governor but also make a strong statement with regards to the insecurity affecting the entire nation.
“It is not just a condolence visit, it is a statement that all of us are fed up with the shedding of innocent blood in whatever guise across this country. So many lives have been lost in the past, we can’t even compute how many lives we have lost. It becomes like a daily occurrence, a daily event. A new normal, it becomes a story when in a day nobody was killed in a particular place of this country,” he said.
On his part, Governor Zulum thanked the royal fathers for the special visit.
Commenting on the impact of the insurgency, Zulum decried the continuous dependence on donations to feed the internally displaced persons as the main source of livelihood.
The governor said in order to address the cause of the insecurity, there was a need to provide sources of livelihoods to the IDPs and those resettled in rebuilt communities.
