Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State on Monday, March 28, 2016 disclosed that the Boko Haram insurgents have destroyed about one million private houses in the few years of their terror campaign in the state.
He mad the disclosure while receiving Olusegun Obasanjo in Maiduguri, capital of troubled Borno State.
He sad: “Tens of thousands of our innocent citizens were brutally killed; married and single women were abducted and raped; our sons were forced into becoming child-soldiers;
“More than 2 million citizens were internally displaced in camps and host communities in Maiduguri alone.
“Others fled to different parts of Nigeria including Lagos, some fled to neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
“Recently, we carried out a post conflict assessment in accordance with international best practices that are verifiable through satellite images and physical analysis, and based on our assessment we discovered that about 1 million private houses were destroyed by insurgents across the 27 local government areas in the state.
“A total of 5,335 classrooms and other school buildings were destroyed in primary, secondary schools and two tertiary institutions.
“A total of 512 primary schools, 38 secondary schools as well as two tertiary institutions of Umar Ibn Elkanemi College of Education, Science and Technology in Bama, and College of Business and Management Studies in Konduga were affected.
“A total of 201 health centres comprising mostly primary healthcare clinics, dispensaries and some general hospitals were affected across the 27 local government areas.
“A total of 1,630 water sources that include motorised boreholes, hand pumps, solar powered boreholes and facilities for piped water schemes were destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents.
“A total of 665 municipal buildings comprising ministries and LGA buildings, prisons, police stations and electric offices were destroyed.
“Also, 726 power distribution substations of 11 KV/415V and distribution lines of 415-230V were destroyed across the 27 local government areas of the state and so were destructions of our Eco systems that include parks, game reserves, forest reserves, grazing reserves, green wall projects, orchards, ponds, river basins and lakes, some of which were either poisoned or bombed in 16 out of 27 local government areas.
“These are in addition to other monumental economic losses suffered by millions of citizens as well as huge quantum of funds expended by government on complimentary services to the military, rebuilding communities initially destroyed before they were occupied as well as rehabilitating victims because we figured out that we had to be paying some sort of compensation to victims so that they do not join Boko Haram out of frustration.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel. You have fought for change and change we have got. The fight against Boko Haram has largely been result driven under the Buhari administration and we are most hopeful that the end of Boko Haram is closer than it ever was.
“We have began reconstruction works as a short documentary clip I am respectfully handing over to you, would confirm. We started reconstruction works to demonstrate commitment on our part.
“We are optimistic that we will be supported by the Federal Government soon.”
