Yobe Government opposes extension of emergency rule

The Yobe State Government said it is opposed to any extension of the state of emergency in the state as proposed by the federal government.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday asked the National Assembly to extend by six months the emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe that has been in place since May last year.


The Yobe government, however, said the last 12 months of emergency rule did not yield any commendable security improvement but more deaths and destruction by the insurgents.

The state government said rather than extending a measure that had failed in its first and second experimentations, the federal government should get the Nigerian military with modern tools and arms that could enable the ill-equipped soldiers to tackle the worsening insurgency.

In a statement issued by Abdullahi Bego, the spokesperson to the Yobe State governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, the government said the last 12 months of emergency rule in Yobe witnessed the worst form of attacks from the insurgents in an hitherto unprecedented manner.

“For instance, over the six months of emergency rule and later over the second, we have seen some of the worst attacks by Boko Haram in Yobe State. From GSS Damaturu to GSS Mamudo to College of Agriculture Gujba and FGC Buni Yadi, more than 120 students were killed by insurgents,” Mr. Bego said.

Yobe said instead of extending a strategy that had continually failed to achieve result, President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration should “evaluate its military strategy regularly, provide additional and superior weaponry to the security forces and use the endowments of advanced communications and satellite technology to be several steps ahead of the insurgents”.