During a visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Army, Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum advocated for the Nigerian Army to establish a military base in Sambisa Forest to combat terrorism more effectively. He also proposed bases on the shores of Lake Chad and Mandara Mountain, which remain sanctuaries for terrorists.
Zulum urged the National Assembly to allocate sufficient funds for weapons to address insecurity and highlighted the need to secure Borno’s porous borders due to the movement of small arms contributing to insecurity in the region. He reaffirmed his support for the military’s kinetic and non-kinetic strategies against insurgency, noting that approximately 190,000 repentant Boko Haram members had surrendered to authorities.
The governor emphasized the need to manage the large number of repentant Boko Haram members, which he described as another crisis requiring stakeholder support. He reported that the government had resettled two million of the over three million displaced persons in the state and stressed the importance of restoring peace for the displaced to return to their ancestral homes.
Zulum expressed concern about the sustainability of over one million displaced persons remaining in camps, citing rising cases of prostitution and drug abuse.
