By ABDULYASSAR ABDULHAMID

Former Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has said some northerners made it difficult for former President Goodluck Jonathan to defeat Boko Haram.

In an interview with Punch, he said at the time, some persons in the region misconstrued Jonathan’s position on the war against insurgents as political.

“When Boko Haram started and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan’s government started doing something about it, it fell on former President Jonathan to carry on.”

“Many northerners misconstrued his (Jonathan) position at that time and for political purposes, they threw many arguments that made it impossible for the proper articulation and proper implementation of policies that would have got rid of Boko Haram and now, we still have them till today.

“The banditry that many of us thought was impossible to happen, I am yet to hear from anybody about the statement credited to Kawu Baraje, our former PDP national chairman in Kwara State, when he stated that they brought the bandits or Fulani from other places.

“I think based on the thinking that probably former President Jonathan wouldn’t have handed over power even if they had won, but he handed over.

“He congratulated them even before the conclusion proper counting of votes which then took away whatever purposes of bringing those people would have served and I would have thought that if that is true, then those who brought them in would compensated them to go back to where they came from.”

Aliyu argued that if the governors had really done a lot from 2015 to date, the northern region would have got rid of the banditry. (Daily Trust)

Update news