In a bid to boost the fight against insecurity, Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum has ordered nine armoured personnel carriers for police operations in Malam-Fatori, a Nigerian border town with the Niger Republic.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that Malam-Fatori, which was taken over by Boko Haram occupation in 2014, is the headquarters of Abadam Local Government Area in northern Borno and has a number of communities sharing borders with the Niger Republic. Insurgents controlled the place for about six years before the military liberated it.
Zulum, on Thursday in Maiduguri, inspected the first batch of three of the nine APCs, with more expected to arrive at the state capital at a later date.
The Borno Governor carried out the inspection in the company of Borno’s Commissioner of Police, Mr Abdu Umar.
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During the assessment tour of the APCs, Zulum said “while the Borno State Government procured nine of the armoured vehicles, the Inspector-General of Police approved the installations of arms and ammunition on them” since the state government has no constitutional powers to acquire such arms.
Zulum noted that the APCs will hopefully enhance operations of a special police unit towards restoring civil authority in Malam-Fatori in order to compliment the Nigerian military.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that the Governor had sometime last month led residents and government officials to embark on the clearance of Malam-Fatori to pave way for the reconstruction of public facilities and private homes towards safe and voluntary resettlement of residents, who had fled to the Niger Republic since 2014, in the wake of the Boko Haram attacks.
Zulum has in the last two years distributed about 1,000 surveillance vehicles to the military, other armed forces and volunteers in Borno’s ongoing peace-building efforts.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK