BY RIMI ALIU
GOVERNOR Babagana Zulum spent Thursday night in Damasak to identify with the Community and also hold meetings with security agencies, following Boko Haram’s attack on the community on Tuesday.
Twenty persons had been killed in the attack while 21 others were injured.
Zulum had gone to Damasak with the lawmaker representing Borno North in the National Assembly, Senator Abubakar Kyari, and other officials. Kyari hails from Damasak.
The governor was said to have held an operational meeting with soldiers and other security forces.
He presented 12 security vehicles which include an armoured personnel carrier ( APC) and 11 patrol vehicles, to strengthen armed forces and volunteers made up of trained youths in the civilian JTF, hunters and vigilantes, helping in the fight against insurgents.
The Governor also interacted with residents, assessed the level of destruction caused by insurgents and sympathised with residents.
He spent the night at Damasak, ostensibly to confirm that the town was not under insurgents’ occupation.
Damasak, headquarter of Mobbar Local Government Area in northern Borno, is located in the fringes of Lake Chad. It shares a border with communities in the Niger Republic.
The town used to be a producer and exporter of vegetables to target markets within Nigeria, the Niger republic and other neighbouring countries. Boko Haram had occupied Damasak in 2014 as one of their caliphates, and the insurgents seem interested in the town, apparently for strategic access to raising funds through agriculture and for land routes to the Niger republic.
