Fleeing members of Boko Haram now operate as kidnappers in the Southwest, Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi has said.
Governor Fayemi, who is the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) made the claim on Sunday night when he featured in a Channels Television programme, “Politics Today”.
While arguing that the Boko Haram insurgency is not limited to Borno State, he noted that they also operate as bandits in the Northwest.
“And that is not something that our colleagues, who are at the receiving end of the insurgency, have proposed to us. Governor Babagana Zulum (of Bonro State) or our Northeast colleagues have not said anything about state of emergency.
“Insurgency is not limited to Borno State. We will be making a mistake if we do not draw a correlation between what is going on in Borno State and what is happening in other parts of the country – banditry, kidnapping, militancy. They are inextricably intertwined.
“Some of the insurgents that escaped from the Boko Haram territory are the ones prosecuting the banditry in the Northwest; some of them are involved in the kidnapping in the Southwest.
“ISWAP (Islamic State in West Africa Province) insurgents coming down from Sudan, from Niger (Republic), are involved in what is going on. How many states are you going to declare (a) state of emergency on then? So, we must take a holistic view on this,” he said.
