*Says ‘We my battalion occupied Lake Chad when I was Lieutenant’
His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and Chairman, National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN), has encouraged the Nigerian Armed Forces to go, occupy the Lake Chad region and Sambisa forest, where Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) currently use as safe haven for their atrocities, and flush out the terrorists to stop mass killings in North of the country.
He said when he was a lieutenant his battalion occupied the place and believed that the gallant troops of the present day military can also do the same and do away with the terrorists there for Nigeria to have peace.
He made this bold statement when he led his colleagues, drawn from Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria, to meet with Governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, in Maiduguri, on Monday December 14, 2020.
The Sultan, who is a retired Army General, said the new normal has been that it is now news when no one is killed in one day, urging that a holistic measure must be taken for bad situation to improve for better.
On the delegation led by Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, who is also President General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), during the all-important visit to the North East terrorists ravaged state were Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemaka Alfred Ugochukwu, Oba Adekunle Adebayo, Ore of Otin, Emir of Hadeja, Dr. Adamu Abubakar Maje, Emir of Fika, Alhaji Mohammed Abale Ibn Mohammed Idrissa, Amanyanabo of Opobo Kingdom, King Dr. Dandasen Douglas Jaja.
According to him, he and his colleagues were in the state on condolence visit to government and people of Borno State over the recent killings in the state.
In his address, the Sultan said: “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.
“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” he said.
Sultan Abubakar, who is a Commander of the Federal Republic, also said and that he and his co-traditional rulers were in Maiduguri not only to commiserate with the governor but to make a strong statement with regards to the insecurity affecting the entire country.
“This afternoon we are at the seat of power of Borno State, in front of the Governor on this special visit, I said special because this is the first time the national council of traditional rulers of Nigeria has ventured out to any state or any town specifically to discuss or talk about the happenings in that particular place as regards insecurity and mass killing of innocent people,” said the Sultan.
He added that, “The National Council of Traditional Rulers in Nigeria deems it fit to put a small team to come round to Borno State, Maiduguri in particular to make this very strong statement.
“It is not just a condolence visit, it is a statement that all of us are fed up with the shedding of innocent bloods 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.
“We had various fora with our political leaders, mentioned this thing out, how to take care of our securities in various communities. We have written papers, sent our Governors, we have discussed with all our leaders, all the way forward. But we see things getting worst and worst. It used to be Boko Haram alone in Borno and Yobe, now in all over the North in particular and generally all over the country. You have bandits and terrorists all over the North, you can’t even move freely, in the South it’s the same thing. The killings have taken new dimensions and we really don’t know what are the causes of this mass killings of innocent people.
“We decided to come together as council of traditional rulers to make this statement to all and sundry, not only to the Governor of Borno State but to all our Governors. Let’s rise up to the occasion and see how we can come together to fight this menace of shading innocent people’s blood.
“When I came to Maiduguri last time to commission the central mosque, the Governor was a candidate, this is my first time of coming when he has taken over. Alhamdulillah we have been following with keen interest what is happening in Borno State, like I always discussed with the Shehu, from day one. Even when you were not even sworn in, he told me the type of person you are, and we are not disappointed when you started doing what you are doing. We have seen the very big stride you have delivered just within one year, but you are just starting, you have a lot to do.
“I have known Maiduguri since when I was a small kid, we have grown up here. I served in Bama, I lived in Bama for over two and half years in the barrack. The same barrack I served as Lieutenant was the same barrack vandalized and bombed,” he said.
Before the Sultan began his address, the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai Elkanemi, had introduced the traditional rulers to Governor Babagana Zulum, noting that the traditional rulers would give all the maximum cooperation to security agencies in the fight against insurgency.
The Shehu also called on the people of Borno to continue to provide credible intelligence reports to the military, noting that the fight against insurgency is a collective responsibility.
On his part, Governor Zulum thanked the royal fathers for the special visit.
Commenting on the impact of the insurgency, the governor decried the continuous dependence on donations to feed IDPs as their main source of livelihood.
According to the governor, to address the cause of the insecurity, there was the need to provide sources of livelihood to the IDPs and those resettled in rebuilt communities.
