Forget Ondo Poll, Face Boko Haram, Zulum Tells Army

The Borno State Governor, Prof Babagana Zulum, has advised the military to leave internal security in the upcoming governorship election in Ondo State on Saturday, October 10, but concentrate more on its counter-insurgency operation in the North-East.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the combined Chief of Army Staff Quarterly Conference in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, yesterday, Zulum said he was ‘a bit scared’ when the Chief of Army Staff mentioned the successes recorded by troops of the Nigerian Army during the Edo poll and the effort to repeat the same in the coming Ondo election.
“When the Chief of Army talked about the success story of Edo election and forthcoming Ondo poll, I was a bit scared because I want the attention of the Nigeria Military to be in the forefront fighting the insurgency”, he said.
Zulum also asked the Army to embark on confidence-building and confidence-sharing with the communities where they are currently carrying out various operations.
He urged the military to take the battle to Boko Haram and embark on what he called clinical clearance of Boko Haram remnants after every operation.
Zulum commended the military for the renewed vigour in counter-insurgency operations.
He said he would give commendation to the military whenever it records successes and criticise anytime it acted wrongly.
The governor urged the Army to deal with saboteurs within the system and among the civil populace.
In his remarks, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai, said the first and second quarter COAS conferences could not hold until now due to the impact of Coronavirus pandemic.
He said the development necessitated a combined first, second and third conference to be held between October 5 and 9 in Maiduguri.