Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno has alleged that 95 per cent of the youths who participated in Thursday’s violent protests in Maiduguri were children under 14 years.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Zulum announced this and the lifting of the state’s 24-hour curfew to the people of Borno in a broadcast.
“Children under the age of fourteen made up over 95% of the participants in the so-called Thursday protests,” stated Zulum. The majority of them have no idea why they are demonstrating.
“A six-year-old child carrying a placard is amazing; he must have been directed by someone. Most of those children are not from Borno.
“While we are not discouraging the Almajiri education, we must however have their teachers or guardians looking after them.”
According to Zulum, there is a situation in Maiduguri where thousands of children are living under the name Almajiri without any care at all, and this needs to be investigated.
He claimed that the vandals who took over the Maiduguri demonstrations had destroyed and looted public buildings, including hospitals.
“In what could have been a major disaster, attempts were made by the hoodlums on several occasions to attack the Maiduguri Emergency Power Gas Plant, however, it was averted by our gallant security forces.
“Violence has no place in our society and I implore citizens to reject any call to arms or act of aggression.
“As we lift the curfew on Saturday, any person that engages in looting and violent activities will be dealt with accordingly,” Zulum said.
He reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to improving the state, pointing to initiatives in a number of areas, most notably infrastructure, health, and education.
Zulum said: “We have distributed rounds of food and non-food items palliatives within Maiduguri and other LGAs, scaled up our support to farmers through sales of fertiliser, and provided seeds and farm inputs to enhance food production.
“We want to also invest in irrigation agriculture and livestock development.”
NAN.
