Governor
Kashim Shettima of Borno State has said he did not call former
President Goodluck Jonathan to brief him after Boko Haram abducted over
200 school girls from Chibok, because he knew that security agencies
must have briefed the president of the development the day it happened.
Mr. Shettima said as president, Mr.
Jonathan had wide resources to keep him abreast of serious national
security issues on a daily basis.
Mr. Shettima was responding to an
inquiry which sought to determine why the governor waited for almost
three weeks expecting the president to reach out to him over a major
incident that happened in his domain.
The governor had said recently that Mr. Jonathan took 19 days to telephone him to ask about the abduction.
He made the remark while receiving
former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom he praised as having a better
record of contacting governors of crisis- prone states on a daily basis.
“In our own case, Your Excellency, after
the Chibok abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in April, 2014, it took 19
days for me to receive a call from the Presidency,” Mr. Shettima said
to Mr. Obasanjo.
Analysts have accused the governor of
not also taking the security of his state serious enough to have to wait
for the president to call, and not contact him.
Mr. Shettima spoke through his Special
Adviser on Communication, Isa Gusau, who assured that his comments were
the governor’s position.
Mr. Gusau said he “had it on good
authority that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was well briefed by
security agencies soon after the abduction and this is to be expected
given the magnitude and for the fact that as at that time, Borno was
under a State of Emergency as declared by the president, which made him
directly in charge of security issues in Borno and happenings there”.
“So, ?when the Chibok abduction took
place on April 14, 2014, Governor Kashim Shettima who is Chairman of the
State Security Councils remained within Borno State as he was expected
to do, to build public confidence and presided over series of daily
security council meetings held at the Government House in Maiduguri to
analyze the situation and developments, to identify strategies and to
coordinate deployment of security responses to containing the
emergency,” he said.
Credit: Premiumtimes
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