CHIEF or army staff Lt General Tukur Buratai and the Yobe State commissioner for works Engineer Surajo Wakil re-opened the Damaturu-Biu Road yesterday amid a lot of fanfare in a sure sign that the authorities are reclaiming territory from Boko Haram.
Over the last three years, the Damaturu-Biu Road was sealed off as the Boko Haram insurgency led to the terrorists gaining control of the area. Over recent months, however, the Nigerian military has regained the initiative and pushed back Boko Haram and having regained control of the road, has now opened it to motorists.
Hundreds of motorists flooded the road yesterday, three years after Boko Haram insurgents had seized it and Lt General Buratai said he hopes the reopened road will bring life back to the reclaimed territories Anxious motorists who had waited all day long for the road to be officially opened, flooded the dusty road as they chanted the praise of the Nigerian Army.
General Buratai called on the government of Yobe State to go ahead and mobilise the contractor working on the reconstruction of the road to return to site or get a competent company to handle the 132km road as the Nigeria Army, he said, will partner with them in the area of security. He called on the troops manning the area not to relent in their vigilance even as he implored the civil community to cooperate with soldiers by providing timely information.
Engineer Wakil, who represented the state governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, commended the army chief for ensuring that peace returns to the state. He said the road has been awarded to a contractor at the cost of N6.1bn and that the contractor has been since been mobilised to site before the Boko Haram insurgents struck.
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