Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state; has continued to mourn four
slain aid workers, as they are heroes of fighting Boko Haram
insurgency to restore peace.
Zulum disclosed this in a statement released Thursday in Maiduguri, by
his Spokesman, Isa Gusau.
“I’m deeply pained by insurgents’ execution of aid workers,” he said,
adding that the aid workers are heroes that were gruesomely killed in
course of serving humanity.
According to him, the aid workers died as heroes of fighting Boko
Haram to restore peace in the state.
The Governor was informed of the execution on Wednesday, while he was
at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Abuja to
discuss and introduce civil-defense volunteer programme in the state.
“More Agro Rangers are to be deployed to secure farmers in Borno
state,” said Zulum.
The insurgents had released a video Wednesday; which showed five
blindfolded aid workers with four of them shot at close range by the
insurgents.
One of the workers; was however; spared even though he was also
positioned for execution.
The aid workers were abducted last month during a humanitarian mission
to support 20,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Monguno
camps.
The Governor mourns and shares the grief of their families and
employers, including Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA),
Action Against Hunger, Reach International, International Rescue
Committee (IRC).
He condoled with the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, (UNOCHA).
He also directed a Government delegation to immediately visit families
of the aid workers to participate in funeral activities.
“They are to pay condolence visits to affected humanitarian partners
through UNOCHA,” he said; adding that there should be fresh ideas on
how to end insurgency in the state.
Continued; “We want a new thinking that would hopefully stop these
endless killings.
“We cannot continue to do the same thing over and over and expect a
different result.”
He therefore, believes in a combination of ‘kinetic and non-kinetic’
approaches; with a position of Army’s ‘Safe Corridor’ that
demonstrated its willingness to rehabilitate and reintegrate
insurgents willing to stop killings of people.
Zulum reiterated his call on insurgents to stop the over a decade
killings in the theatre of war.
