Maku lambasts northern govs, elders says they're not doing enough to fight terrorism -

Maku

Minister of Information, Labaran Maku recently lambasted the Governors of the 19 northern states, saying that the insurgency in the zone has continued to fester because “they are not doing enough to win the war against terror”

Briefing state House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting which he said discussed extensively, the recent bombings in Kano and Jos, Mr Maku rather that preoccupy themselves with criticizing federal government, the governors of the northern states must mobilise their people to join the fight against terror.

“It is not the weaknesses of the armed forces, it is the same way the Americans are getting frustrated in Afghanistan. If the terrorist they were to stand against the Nigerian armed forces, they will not last 30 minutes and will be completely destroyed”

“Every Governor of the 19 northern states must reorganize its people to monitor people at the grass root or local level. Until we have every state government determined to organize its people in terms of information gathering, we may not be able to defeat terror” he warned.

According to the minister, the required result from the declaration of the state of emergency in some states in the north east has not been achieved because of lack of adequate cooperation with security agencies.

” We have not seen this preparation going on, if we did this, Chibok would not have occurred. If we are organizing our people, I believe we would have defeated terror by now. You need the cooperation of every little unit to expose these people who are terrorizing the people”

“The entire north must prepare its traditional rulers, each village heads, each religious leaders and the people to create the necessary synergy and mobilize the people against Boko Haram”

“We need to speak with one voice against terrorism. But the right political mobilization must be put in place and I think that this is what the media should support”

“When people tell you that because we have send troops we can win the war, it is not true. It is a war between a few ideologically programmed individuals. You need the right networking. We do not have to wait a long time if we do what we are supposed to do and without this cooperation, these people may continue to waste more blood”

Mr Maku cautioned against undue antagonism of the nation’s security services warning that “If we destroy our armed forces, we do not have alternatives. These are the people being killed daily and they are doing a lot for this country. These are people whose children are being turned into orphans. This is a gorilla warfare and we believe that Nigerians can help to win it if we prepare ourself and organized our self to defeat terrorism by mobilizing our people to give information about the terrorists”

He equally cautioned politicians against unnecessary grandstanding saying that “the objective of terror group is to divide the opinion of Nigerians, put fears into the people and get them disunited and we need to understand that politic aside, we must unit to fight this terror.”

“It is the Nigerian efforts that can bring this terror to an end. We need every religious leader to be able to speak to their people”

The Information Minister said it is important for Nigerians to appreciate that terrorism “is not a war of one religion against the other. It is a war against all Nigerians and we believe that evil will never prevail over this country. We condemn the bombing of innocent people who had no disagreement with them”

Speaking on the forthcoming third anniversary of President Jonathan’s administration, Maku said the occassion would used to highlight the achievements of government since the return to democratic rule.

The minister said “but for the sad violence in parts of the North, this country would have seen the best managed economy in the history of this nation. One thing that evil will not succeed in doing is that it will not distract government from the development of this country. They may try to distract us but they will never succeed”

Vanguard