Darius Ishaku, governor of Taraba state, has declared support for Babagana Zulum, his Borno counterpart, who asked the federal government to engage mercenaries in the fight against Boko Haram.
When he received a federal government delegation in the state on Monday, Zulum made six recommendations to President Muhammadu Buhari on the battle against insurgents, including hiring of mercenaries.
On Tuesday, Ishaku led the governors of Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe on a sympathy visit to Borno over the killing of farmers in Zabarmari community in Jere local government area of Borno.
During the visit, Ishaku said it is clear that Nigeria needs external help in the fight against insurgency. “Our dear brother, we are here to condole you over the killing of farmers by Boko Haram insurgents. We are indeed saddened and traumatised.
“I will key into your request, which you said that the federal government should invite some mercenaries to come and help us out of this problem, because what you can’t do, what you can’t solve, I think we should invite who can solve it for us.
“We cannot continuously be mourning, there has to be a time to stop the mourning. All of us in the North East Governors Forum, we are pleading with the federal government to find a solution to the issue of Boko Haram because if we neglect it, it will become even worst.”
The Taraba governor also appealed to the federal government to look into the infrastructural deficit in the north-east.
“We also call on the federal government to look at the northeast with sympathy, it is embarrassing in the whole budget, what is given to the northeast is 0.35%,” he said.
“With all these problems we are having, with the insurgency, all the problems, with the insecurity, from the whole federal budget of Nigeria, only 0.35% only allocated for the northeast. This is very very unfair.
“The federal government should look at the issue of infrastructure in the north-east, I will once again call on the federal government, the issue of Mambila hydropower project, 3,500 megawatts should be looked at as matter of urgency. Without this power we will not indeed have any meaningful development.”
Zulum expressed appreciation to the delegation for their visit.