Senator Ali Ndume has claimed that Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, is safer than Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
This came as Ndume, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, said that “somebody can knock down your door with a gun in Abuja” unlike In Maiduguri where such a thing does not exist.
Ndume, who hails from Borno State, spoke when he featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday night.
Borno State remains one of the worst hit by Boko Haram and ISWAP incessant attacks.
However, Ndume said, “I live in Abuja and also live in Maiduguri,” he said. “Once I come to Maiduguri, I feel safer than in Abuja, because somebody can knock down your door with a gun. In Maiduguri, we don’t hear of that.
“It is outside Maiduguri where the insurgents are marauding around and attack intermittently. And that’s normal with insurgents, that’s why they are called insurgents, they do hit and run on soft targets.”
He said that in every society, criminality can never be completely wiped out, noting that in America, there is school shooting.
“Our own is that we have known terrorists and the army is fighting them,” he said.
According to the senator, with the apparent death of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, ISWAP seems to have replaced Boko Haram as the new face of insurgency in the region.
He said, “ISWAP is more deadly, more sophisticated, have international connection, access to military armament and the likes, but the other side of them is that they don’t kill civilians indiscriminately like the Boko Haram and in fact that was what ignited the fight between the ISWAP and the Shekau group,” Mr Ndume said.
“Now the Shekau group have been virtually eliminated, it means that our Nigerian troops are going to face what they know specifically.
“What was frustrating them most was the indiscriminate killing of civilians and other soft targets, destruction of public property by the Boko Haram.
“But now that the ISWAP is saying we are just going after the military or the armed forces or the security agencies. Our security agencies are up to the task; Our security agencies are up to the task and ready for them. They have engaged themselves and (ISWAP) have suffered serious casualties.”