Boko Haram: Shettima Hails Gallant Armed Forces

… Urges Maiduguri Residents To Remain Calm
SAN FRANCISCO, January 25, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Armed Forces have been praised for their gallantry and determination in repelling Sunday's Boko Haram attack on Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

Commending the military and other security operatives for their resilience was the state Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, who also urged residents of the state to remain calm, saying the security forces were making frantic efforts to safeguard lives and property.

Shettima however lamented the insurgents' attack on Monguno, headquarters of Monguno local government area in northern part of the State, with the attendant loss of lives, destruction and displacement of people, saying all these could have been avoided.

According to the governor, the Borno Government has started screening and taking records of those who survived the Monguno attack to enable his administration accommodate them and offer them all necessary reliefs.

While calling for prayers for divine intervention, he advised the survivors to be calm , praying that the situation “will insha Allah, come to an end, through intensified commitments on the part of all stake-holders and sustained invocation of God for divine intervention.”

Shettima, in a statement Sunday by his media aide, Mallam Isa Gusau, said his administration would continue to provide the needed support to members of the Armed Forces involved in the counter-insurgency operations in the state.

He said he would also continue to do everything possible to ensure that all seized territories by the insurgents are reclaimed and the displaced people returned to their homes.

According to Shettima, “Our Armed Forces gallantly repelled attacks on parts of Borno State today. We must commend their patriotic efforts. We are very much in touch with leaders of security forces and we will continue to afford them all the support they need as we have always done from our first day in office till date. So long as we have the resources, we will continue to regard the efforts to reclaim peace, our number one area of commitments.

“I want to reassure the good people of Borno State that we will never abdicate from our responsibility as those they entrusted with leadership. I was supposed to be in Abuja this morning for an important engagement but I have canceled all engagements outside Borno State. We will remain behind with our people through thick and thin as we have been doing as a matter of constitutional and moral covenant.”