Borno Government Probes Diversion Of IDPs Relief Materials

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, has directed the State Command of the Nigeria Police and the Department of State Security (DSS) to investigate and arrest anyone found culpable in alleged diversionof rice meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state.The directive follows the recent circulation of a video clip and pictures on social media which showed some bags of rice said to have been supplied by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to the IDPs, being re-bagged by people suspected to be officials of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).The governor gave the directive when he hosted heads of all security and para-military organisations in the State alongside members of the Borno State Executive Council for Ramadan Iftar at the Government House.While noting that he would await the outcome of the investigation and arrests by the Police and DSS, Shettima however, noted that he was aware that a group of Abuja-based politicians, who hail from Borno had sworn to bring down his administration using all kinds of mischief.He cited an incident when hundreds of posters were produced and pasted along strategic points in Abuja and Kaduna claiming that he was aspiring for Presidentin 2019, with the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha as his running mate, as one of such examples.He said, “When Borno wasn’t safe, they retired to Abuja and completely stayed away and left us, but now that peace is emerging, they have lost relevance in their party the PDP and they have started their brand of politics.“They know that they can’t take us on in terms of performance and their party is crumbling so they have set up an office in Abuja with another one in Maiduguri with some youths hired to foment mischief. They don’t care if the whole of Borno goes into flames as long as they bring Shettima down.“They are coming up with all kinds of mischief including trying to set me up against the Presidency; they don’t care if doing that obstructs our success against Boko Haram.”

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