SUNRISE NEWS, Borno, Aug. 9, 2020 – The Northeast Governors Forum rose from their second general meeting in Maiduguri, calling on the Federal Government to deploy state of the art military hardware to the region to help in the war against the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgents causing mayhem in the area.
They also demanded the armed forces intensifies efforts at securing hard to reach areas in the region and ensure safe access to farmlands.
The governors in a communiqué read by the new Chairman and Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum observed that the efforts of the Federal Government at stemming the war in the area had suffered many reversals, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to order the armed forces to do more.
Present at the meeting which held at Maiduguri were governors of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe States.
The forum also nominated the Borno State Governor Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, MNSE, mni, as Chairman of the Forum for a period of two years and the Headquarters of the Forum will be located in Maiduguri, Borno State.
The forum demanded that the manpower deficit in the nation’s armed forces be bridged by allowing the police to carry state of the art weapons where necessary and be provided with strategic equipments Armoured Personnel Carriers, tear gas and trackers, even as it called on the Federal Minisry of Water Resources to recharge the Lake Chad from the National Water bodies and strengthen the river basins in the sub-regions.
The forum pledges to work together to foster regional integration, growth and development especially in exploitation of its oil and gas potentials, mineral resources, agriculture and industrialization, even as it called for the revocation of all road contracts awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works for years without progress and re-award same to more competent contractors.
The forum urged the Federal Government to ensure local content in the execution of the Mambila Hydro electric power project and other programmes of the North East Development Commission to ensure synergy with state governments.
The Forum supports the management and Board of the North East Development Commission and agreed to work together in producing comprehensive strategic Master Plan for the region that will ensure sustainable development.
The Forum affirmed its commitment to support the Federal Government agenda of transforming the Almajiri system with a view to strengthening both Islamic and western education as well as stopping street begging and prevalence of out of school children in the region as agreed by the Northern Governors.