By Sylvester Ugwuanyi
Some indigenes of Borno State coming under the banner of Borno Patriots have threatened to shut down the entire Northeast if a former governor of the State, Ali Modu-Sherrif, rumoured to be a Boko Haram sponsor, is not arrested by the Federal Government within the next seven days.
The group, while noting that the five-year-old Boko Haram insurgency plaguing the region would not recede as long as Modu Sheriff is still around, said that Modu-Sherrif will continue to sabotage any move by the Federal Government to end the insurgency as long as he is a free man. They made known their position in a statement signed by the Chairman, Ibrahim Modu and Secretary, Samuel Mshelizza, which was released on Monday.
According to the Borno Patriots, “If he is not arrested within seven days, we shall lead a mass protest of all members in the North east and widows of soldiers to shut down the Northeast. We can no longer allow SAS to dance on the grave of Boko Haram victims and add insult to the injury of grieving mothers.”
They further held that, “Senator Ali Sheriff’s visit to Kano to negotiate the release of the seized plane containing ammunitions is an insult on the people of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa and Nigerians in general choking under the cloak of the insurgency and who are being killed and maimed daily.
“His acceptance of the fact that he was in Kano at the time in question is mockery of the Chibok girls and their suffering parents,” they fumed.
Insisting on the immediate arrest and investigation of Modu-Sherrif over his alleged role in bankrolling Boko Haram, Borno Patriots alleged that “Sheriff and Jonathan have blood on their hands as the lives of over 13,000 people killed so far will surely not go in vain.”
While further demanding the former governor to render a stewardship of his maladministration which, according to the group, turned the peaceful Borno he inherited into a “home in pieces’ as a result of his selfish political interest, the Borno Patriots posited that “Sheriff is a man without conscience that even the devil will be scared of him due to the level of evil machinations in him.”
