Insurgents will surrender – Barrister Aisha Wakil
Amidst incessant attacks on military formations and communities by Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast, Barr Aisha Alkali Wakil, popularly called Mama Boko Haram, has stressed that the insurgents will soon surrender.
Mama Boko Haram, who is a member of the presidential panel on ending insurgency, was speaking in Maiduguri last weekend at the launching of a N500, 000,000 appeal fund by her NGO, the Complete Care and Aid Foundation (COCAAF).
Barr Aisha said the seemingly intractable terror and insurgency in the Northeast would soon end and “All my sons (the insurgents) in the bush will insha Allah (by the grace of God) come back home and surrender: they will come back, I am sure.”
Mama Boko Haram said: “Even before the Chibok girls’ abduction, we could have succeeded in achieving a peaceful resolution between the insurgents and government if it were not for the saboteurs that aggravated the situation for their selfish and political interests.”
She expressed her determination to continue assisting towards the end of the Boko Haram insurgency, stating: “I will not rest until I succeed; I am not relenting; they listen to me; they look at me like a mother.” The Kwara State Government says it is not indebted to any contractor handling its road projects in the state under the Kwara Infrastructure Development Fund (IFK).
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works and Transport, Alhaji Yusuf Garba Manjo, said this in his office while answering questions from newsmen. He explained that the government had adopted a system of ‘pay as you go’ as contractors are paid for all jobs done immediately the government evaluates their work and satisfied with their certificates.
According to him, all the contractors are paid on quarterly basis in accordance with the IFK payment schedule, stressing that
Barr Aisha Wakil said the humanitarian fund was to redeem the situation of the thousands of widows in distress with their teeming children as a result of the insurgency, as well as the teeming population of the youth submerged in drug abuse to transform their lives to moral uprightness and good citizenship.
About N100 million was collected on the spot at the launching of the fund. just last week, they were paid for all jobs already completed. He denied claims in some quarters that the state government was not patronizing local contractors and mentioned some few contractors that have benefitted from the government jobs to include Bito Engineering, Sky construction Limited, Tungar-Kasuwa, Morghan, LOAT construction, and Air Bag.
The Permanent Secretary disclosed that the Offa/Ira Road, Arandun/ Rore/Ipetu/Aran-Orin , Offa township road , Anilelerin/ Ita Agun road have been completed while Oke Onigbin township road is about to be completed and work along Michael Imuodu to Ganmo junction would soon continue as the issue of the electric pole that delayed the project had been been relocated.