Gaidam: Yobe Has Spent N12bn on Security in Six Years

Michael Olugbode

Yobe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, has said his administration was saddled with the heavy load of spending over N12 billion on securityrelated issues with insignificant support coming from the federal government.

The governor who spoke to journalists through his media aide, Alhaji Abdullahi Bego, on Monday, lamented that the only major contribution of the federal government to assisting Yobe State which has had to pick almost all the bills incurred as a result of the protracted Boko Haram insurgency was a meagre N150 million.

Bego, who disclosed that this donation was given during the outgone President Goodluck Jonathan administration, said though no financial donation was yet received from the present President Muhammadu Buhari administration, all things now show that the federal government was better committed to ending the crisis and assisting the affected states pick up some of the bills.

He however said the state government, despite the heavy financial burden has not shied away from its numerous responsibilities in all other sectors of the state.

He said: “At a time that we were going through the worst security crisis of our lifetime, a crisis that continues to exert a heavy toll on our finances, the Yobe State Government under His Excellency, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, has continued to keep faith with all its major responsibilities - paying workers their salaries regularly at the end of each month, helping to provide support to the security forces who are working to bring the prevailing Boko Haram insurgency to an end and pushing on with the delivery of basic services. To date, the Yobe State Government has spent over N12 billion in security-related spending.”

Bego also disclosed that the state government has done a lot to support people directly affected by Boko Haram attacks.

He said records from the Yobe State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) showed that a total of 135, 511 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are now scattered in 13 local government areas living in host communities.

He further revealed that the state government has established IDPs camp in Damaturu with 3,011 persons, of this number, 482 are men, 670 women and 1,859 are children.

He said there were two other camps set up by the IDPs themselves in Kasaisa and Kukareta with a population of over 2, 750 IDPs, noting that over the past two years, SEMA has been supporting these IDPs, also with additional support from NEMA and other development partners.

Bego stressed that the most recent support provided people affected by Boko Haram insurgency was the sum of N61.8 million, given by the state government to some traders whose businesses were destroyed by the terrorists.