Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, Thursday
raised the alarm that Boko haram members were planning to bomb his house.
This came as governors of Yobe,
Ibrahim Gaidem and Borno, Kassim Shetima also stated that the insurgents still
occupied 5 local governments of the two states.
Osinbajo made the disclosure at the
National Economic Council, NEC meeting with governors at the presidential villa
in Abuja on Thursday.
Osinbajo resumes in office The Vice
President who decried the economic life of the north east in the midst of insurgency
stated that public enlightenment needed to be carried out through radio and
television create more awareness.
In another statement, the presidency denied that the VP house was the
targeted by Boko Haram, rather the insurgents are targeting VIPS.
He also added that pressure should be
mounted on the new Service Chiefs to stem the rising tide of insurgency in the
country.
Meanwhile, there was no specific mention
of the house and the location.
His concerns were contained in the
communique issued at the end of the meeting and made available to newsmen He
said: “The Vice President regretted that the
insurgency has affected the economic life of the north east and the country as
a whole.
“He called for the council to speak as
a team to put pressure on the Service Chiefs to increase their effort in
fighting insurgency.
“There should be increase in sensitization
and education channels like radio, television.
“The Vice President also disclosed
that security report has it that scavengers are now being prepared by
insurgents to dump refuse laden with bombs in the house of the Vice President”, the communique said.
According to the communique, “Governors of Yobe, Borno, Taraba,
kaduna, Gombe, Plateau and Bauchi took turns to inform the Council of security
concerns in those regions”,
while “Governors of Yobe and Borno raised
the alarm of five local government areas of the two States still being in
possession of the insurgents”.
The governors called for increase in
military deployment and provision of sophisticated military equipment in those
areas, insisting that “insurgents
were still hiding in the Sambisa forest”.
While lending his voice, Osun State
governor, Rauf Aregbesola “suggested that special economic angle should be introduced in
addition to military intervention to deal with Boko Haram problem.”
On Cattle rustling and banditry, NEC
stated that Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai disclosed that most of
the cattle rustlers were in Kumuku national part, saying that if not properly handled,
it could result to another Sambisa forest.
On CBN intervention funds Giving
updates on intervention funds by the Centra Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to States,
NEC said it had “received
a presentation from the CBN governor on the update of restructuring of bank
loans for the states and payment of salary arrears.”
According to the communique, “The governor informed the council
that following meetings with banks, it was agreed that existing loans should be
restructured for the minimum of 20 years while salary arrears should also be restructured
for the minimum of 15 years and not exceed more than 20 years.”
It added that States could opt for
two options which incident “the bond option which will attract market rate; and the dent
restructuring option which will attract single digit rate”
-(vanguard)
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