Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State says N150 million have been set aside for the rehabilitation of the 53 abducted school girls who escaped from the Boko Haram terrorists.
He said the Boko Haram terrorist, who are claiming to be fighting the course of Allah, have neglected the doctrines of Holy books.
According to him, “they have in some cases tried to change the ordained translation of verses in the Holy Quran. To every Muslim, a verse of the Holy Quran has clearly said that there is no compulsion in religion. But to these men of violence, there is compulsion not only in religion but even in Islamic ideology.
“To these men, any human who doesn’t share their ideology deserves to be brutally killed. A Muslim that is of not of the Boko Haram sect is condemned to death and so is Christian.
“To them, the human race should go into extinction for their doctrine to thrive. Borno has seen evil times. Our people have suffered”.
Shettima who disclosed this while addressing the Presidential fact finding committee in Chibok said “The Borno State Government will set aside the sum of one hundred and fifty million naira to fund a rehabilitation programme for the 53 girls and to support parents in Chibok whose sources of livelihood have been truncated by their trauma, leaving them with little or nothing to feed, while we continue to work immeasurably for the release of the girls being held”.
He said the Chibok incident had exposed the weakness of political leaders in the country who had instead of finding solution to the unfortunate incident, now engaged in trading of blames.
“The Chibok incident, for me, has grossly exposed our weight of weakness as leaders in terms of assuming our shared responsibilities. In the two or three months, the entire western world mobilized men and resources, contributed so much funds in the search for a Malaysian airline which is believed to have crashed into the ocean, Majority in the western world, suspect that the crew and passengers of that Malaysian airline are most probably dead.
“Despite that, massive investment was and still being deployed in the search for whatever can be found as remains of those in that plane and its wreckage.
“Now, while that is going on, here is Nigeria, there was a report that over 200 human creatures, young Nigerian girls about completing their secondary school education, were attacked in their school at night and whisked away like slaves in ancient years. And some Nigerians, one of them a former Minister and one time member of the Federal Executive Council, which is the highest decision making body of this country, worst of all, a woman and a mother came out to cast doubt over the abduction of these children.
“That woman completely disregarded the sensitivity of that issue, the pains of the agonizing parents and our pains as a Government, to whom, the parents of these girls, cry out in desperation and unimaginable confusion and anguish.
“Every other unreasonable Nigerian that came to adopt that view, only anchored the unfortunate view that was first expressed by Mrs Kema Chikwe. Doubt over that abduction pained me as much as the incident itself. Doubt over that abduction pained me far more; the childish theory that as a government, we staged that abduction in order to create basis to stop the extension of emergency rule in Borno. By the way, that theory doesn’t make the slightest sense”, Shettima said.
The Governor said “The State Government is already in touch with key international organizations and a plan of action has already been proposed by the Ministry of Health in the State on issues relating to the health well being of the 53 girls as well as their colleagues soon as they are freed ‘insha Allah’.
“We are very optimistic that they will be freed. We have a quiet committee headed by the State’s commissioner of health, she is a female medical doctor with specialty in reproductive health, she has experience in female advocacy with International contacts on the issues before us.
“We may need to enlarge the committee to have all relevant stakeholders that include Chibok elders, PTA of the school, Security agencies in the State, the National Association of Nigerian Students, the association of Borno Students, the female wing of Christian Association of Nigeria, the Federation of Muslim Women of Nigeria, the district head of Chibok, some civil societies and specialists in psychological counseling etc, so that we move on while we must all work very hard in collaboration with the Federal Government to ensure the release of our daughters, give them medical care, counsel them, reintegrate them and ensure they are given the right to complete their exams”, Shettiuma added.
He said the Borno State Government was committed to sincere and active collaboration with the Federal Government and all other support groups in the collective fight against insurgency, stressing that the continued collaboration, however, need the trust of each other and sincerity of purpose”.
The governor said “I see misconception about those behind Boko Haram as one major hindrance to fighting the insurgency.
“So long as we continue to look the wrong way on who is or are behind Boko Haram, there would be lack of focus on the part of most stakeholders and in which case, the victims would remain the accused.
“I wish this committee of respected men and women of impeccable character, a successful endeavor and I am confident that this committee has integrity, enough to guide it towards finding the facts on the attack of April 14, 2014 at Government Secondary School, Chibok”.