A report published on Monday, July 27, 2015 by the US Department of State has indicted Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State for actively supporting the recruitment and deployment of child soldiers in the last one year.
The report, which hailed the efforts of the Nigerian Government in tackling trafficking ranked Nigeria as a “Tier 2 Category” country – The same rating the country got in a similar report in 2014.The report said Governor Shettima’s continued support – financial and otherwise – for the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), a local vigilante group assisting the Nigerian military in the on-going war on insurgency was a major cause of concern as the group was in the practice of making use of child soldiers.
The report noted that although the CJTF had been warned that the “recruitment and use of child soldiers was prohibited”, the Shettima-led Borno State Government’s support for the group continued.
The report said: “The (federal) government prohibited the recruitment and use of child soldiers and issued official statements condemning such use; however, the CJTF continued to recruit and use child soldiers during the reporting period.
“Despite these efforts, during the reporting period, the Borno State government provided financial and in-kind resources to the CJTF, which recruited and used child soldiers.”
It is noteworthy that Governor Shettima was on the presidential entourage to the US last week and was present during security talks between President Buhari, his American counterpart, President Barrack Obama and the US Secretary of State, John Kerry.
