Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state has threatened to sack District Heads and Local Government Officials who abandoned their communities recently sacked by Boko Haram insurgents.

It was reported that the communities were abandoned at their respective Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) “makeshift camps” in Monguno, Borno state.

The abandoned IDPs were sacked from their communities in recent Boko Haram attacks in Kukawa, Abadam, Marte, Monguno and Bama Local Government Areas.

Shettima gave the warnings on Saturday, while addressing the displaced persons, before holding the All Progressive Congress (APC) campaign rally in Monguno, the Borno North senatorial headquarters.

“Any District Head, including council chairmen and secretaries, who fails to join these displaced people sacked from their communities to take refuge in Monguno has up to Tuesday (February 5) this week to join their people.

“These people are distressed and don’t have any place to go and rely on you for their needs for food, shelter and security,” he said.

According to him, the makeshift camps are inhabitable and can breed water and airborne diseases.

Governor Kashim lamented: “When I asked some of the agonising women in the camp on the whereabouts of their local leaders, they said most of them have taken refuge and are living in Maiduguri metropolis.

“It is at this pathetic moment today (Saturday) I concluded that District Heads and top council officials of the Boko Haram-ravaged areas have abandoned their people in Monguno town.”

Shettima then warned that any affected District Head and council official who fails to join the IDPs in Monguno on Tuesday, should consider himself sacked.

He said all the leaders of the IDPs were supposed to live and attend to their basic needs of food, shelter and security.

The State’s Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) said that more than 58,600 people were displaced in the recent attacks in Kukawa, Monguno, Abadam and Marte councils.

While appreciating the pathetic living conditions of IDPs, he said that state government was going to establish more camps in Monguno and its environs.

•Sourced from a Daily Trust report