Gov Shettima gives 432 houses to Boko Haram victims – Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno the other day distributed 432 news houses to surviving family members of Boko Haram victims who have been chased out of their properties at Bulabulin Ngarnam neighbourhood in Maiduguri.
He also announced that in the coming days, he would lay the foundation for the construction of over 400 houses in an estate to be called ‘Borno Heroes Estate’ that would be allocated to families of slain soldiers, policemen, men of the Department of State Security, Immigration, Customs and youth volunteers who were killed in the ongoing fight against Boko Haram insurgents across Borno State.
The 432 units of two bedroom flats for Ngarnam victims was named “Yerwa Peace Estate’ and they replaced hundreds of houses which were forcibly taken over by the Boko Haram insurgents between 2009 and 2013. Those structures were used as the sect’s coordination headquarters for various attacks but were later destroyed by the Nigerian army personnel.
Governor Shettima, at the allocation of the new houses to citizens free of charge, announced that similar estates would be constructed for families of security men who laid their lives for peace to return to Borno State.
”You all may recall, that over time, we have built hundreds of houses in places like Bama, Konduga, Gwoza, Yoyo in Monguno, some parts of Hawul, Kaga and many others, to resettle victims of insurgency attacks and we had rebuilt schools, markets and hospitals that were destroyed before over twenty of local government areas were taken and occupied by insurgents.
Thankfully, many of the local governments have been recovered, what is left is mop up going on before we commence evaluation, reconstruction, rehabilitation of victims and their reintegration back to communities when we are certain that the communities are safe.
“However, we have not built a community to resettle families of our soldiers, policemen, the DSS and youth volunteers called the civilian JTF whose bread winners gave their lives to Borno. We are gathered here today because some soldiers, policemen, DSS and Civilian JTF fought Boko Haram and in the process laid down their lives so we all come gather on a day like this, without fear that insurgents occupy Bulabulin-Ngarnam. People gave their lives so we can have peace. The least we can do is to assist their survivors and immortalize them.
“Starting from next week, we are going to build an estate like this which we shall call “Borno Heroes Estate” which will, after thorough considerations, be allocated to families of soldiers, policemen, DSS, Immigration, Customs and the Civilian JTF, who are found to be in need of shelter and who are desirous of living in Maiduguri.,” he said.
“We won’t care about the fact that some our fallen heroes in the military and other security agencies were employees of the Federal Government, we will not care about their State of origin, after all; they served and died for Borno. Once a family is in need and want to live in Maiduguri, they should be entitled so long as their bread winner fought and died for Borno. We will however place emphasis on those that went to battle fronts, died and left behind children and other helpless dependants.
“In addition to that, the estate will have a primary and secondary school so that orphans left by the Borno Heroes would have access to free and quality education at their door steps because their fathers made the highest sacrifices for Borno,” the governor said.
Earlier during the commissioning of the estate for victims in Bulabulin-Ngarnam, the Governor enumerated his pains over serial attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, noting that he wasn’t happy even while unveiling the laudable project because the gathering was meant to recall one of many impacts of Boko Haram attacks on innocent citizens in the State.
