• Police lose five officers, kill 38 bandits in Katsina
• Nigeria wobbles along amid security threats, says Kaigama

The 12-year Boko Haram terrorism has claimed 956,453 houses, 665 municipal buildings and 201 health centres in Borno State.

Other destroyed public structures include 552 primary and secondary schools as well as two tertiary institutions at Bama and Gambouru, a border community with Cameroon.

World Bank’s report on the North East Recovery and Peace-Building Assessment released in Maiduguri, yesterday, noted: “About 665 municipal buildings comprising ministries, local council buildings, correctional centres, police stations and electric supply offices were also destroyed in Borno.”

It further disclosed that the 956,453 private houses represent 30 per cent of residential houses torched by the bandits in 22 local councils.

The report noted that developmental aggression in Borno was not driven by competition, but unquantifiable challenges.

Reacting to the report, Governor Babagana Zulum declared: “This should not be a basis for negative comparison.”

He, therefore, appealed to his supporters not to insult any leader on the basis of whatever is achieved in the state.

Similarly, the Katsina State Police Command said it lost five of its gallant officers in 2021 during various operations to combat insecurity in the state.

However, the command killed 38 bandits, and arrested 65 suspected kidnappers, 63 of whom have been charged to court and two under investigation.

Spokesperson for the command, SP Gambo Isah, stated this at the command’s headquarters, on Thursday.

Isah also noted that the command arrested 999 suspects in connection with 608 cases within same period, 874 of whom were being prosecuted in various courts, and 12 still under investigation.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Ignatius Kaigama, has said that the country wobbles along amid homegrown terrorism, kidnapping and separatist agitations.

In his New Year massage made available to journalists, yesterday, in Abuja, Kaigama said the issues presented a fertile ground for a disastrous end of apocalyptic proportions, yet Nigeria remained one country, but deeply divided.

According to him, Nigerians have a lot to thank God for in the outgoing year, especially for surviving the adverse effect of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), despite their ill-preparedness, despicable state of the health institutions and complete dependence on foreign nations and agencies both for coping strategies and for critical life-saving vaccines

“Although we have wasted so many opportunities, we must dare to hope and courageously face the future together, as we enter the new year with a sense of wonder and trust, as the future belongs to only those who dare to hope,” he added. (The Guardian: Excludes headline)

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