How Borno co-funds fight against Boko Haram, by SSG

Borno state government has said that whereas it had received only N200 million contribution from the federal government since 2011, it had invested over N10 billion “in the procurement of armoured personnel carriers, patrol vehicles, hundreds of trailers of petroleum products, provision of material logistics and intervention on area of accommodation to support security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency.”
Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda, stated this in an interactive session with journalists before he left Lagos at the weekend.
He said the state had earlier decided not to make public its expenditures on the fight against Boko Haram because Governor Kashim Shettima always restrained officials in order not to be viewed as embarrassing the federal government “since funding security falls under the exclusive legislative lists which makes it a constitutional obligation of the federal government.
Jidda said the governor reversed his position given series proof allegations leveled against the state “by mischief makers, part of which is a claim that the state was not supporting the military.”

He added: “First of all let me say we were pushed into making public, these things I am about to say. For three years we dealt with these challenges without any noise since the government was doing it for Borno people. Some people are being made to assume that a certain security vote is provided to state governments, this is not true. No state gets a dime from FAAC as security vote. Every state makes its own budget it intends to spend from its own normal allocations for security and not that external funds from the federal government accrue to any state.
“For us in Borno, we have spent over N10 billion in the last three years to support security agencies in the counter-insurgency. This doesn’t include our losses. We have lost thousands of citizens and in terms of material loss, we might be talking in tens of billions and in all of these Borno has received only N200 million from the federal government as support even we have been co-funding the security that is exclusive preserve of the federal government.”

Continuing, he said: “The over N10 billion has been spent in acquiring and donating over 20 brand new ultra modern Armoured Personnel Carriers to the Nigeria Police Force, the government has acquired and donated about 400 brand new Toyota Hilux Patrol Vehicles each costing between N6 to 7 million; we have a filling Station that is dedicated to regular fueling of these vehicles, hundreds of trailers of fuel have obviously been consumed and still being consumed, we maintain these vehicles, provide material logistics to troops. We even pay for intelligence through the military by releasing funds where they request.”