Earlier this week, Governor Bindow had pledged the sum of money in the renewed fight against Boko Haram and media reports had indicated that the money was meant to fund prayer sessions. In a rebuttal of these reports, the Adamawa State government said that the money will be used to strengthen existing community surveillance and intelligence gathering to check mate the operations of the insurgents.
Mathias Yohanna, the chief press secretary to the governor, said: “One of the challenges inherited by the government on assumption of office is the menace of the Boko Haram insurgency. As a serious and responsive government, it deemed it fit to tackle it head on by evolving new security measures and sustaining the existing ones aimed at curbing the menace thereby enhancing security of lives and properties.
"The correct position of the matter is that government had evolved a community mobilisation process intended to enhance peace and security in the state."
Yesterday, the governor's chief of staff Alhaji Abdurahman Jimeta had in a media chat aired on the Adamawa State Television in Yola, said that the money was for prayers to seek for Allah’s intervention in tackling the Boko Haram menace and other insecurity challenges threatening the stability of the state. He explained that the money was sourced from the state and local governments’ joint account.
Immediately, the declaration was seized upon with security analysts describing it as a poor decision, lacking in initiative. Abuja security analyst Jide Oluyemi, said that even though prayers were necessary, they would not solve the Boko Haram problem.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, has declared that Washington never placed an arms embargo on Nigeria, adding that the US is the greatest partner with Nigeria in the campaign against Boko Haram. Last year, the US refused to sell Nigeria helicopters to fight the insurgents, expressing concern about the army's human rights record.
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