NAN – The Borno government, on Monday, May 18, 2015 commended the Federal Government for setting up an Inter-ministerial Assessment Committee for rehabilitation of structures damaged by Boko Haram insurgents in the North East.
The state’s Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mustapha Zanna, gave the commendation when he received members of the Committee who were on a visit to Maiduguri.
Zanna said that the constitution of the committee was timely as it would provide avenue for the commencement of work in affected communities.
He added that “the setting up of the committee is timely because our people are due to start going back to their communities following the liberation of their communities by soldiers.
“More than 97 per cent of the communities have been liberated from the insurgents; we have also been assured that in the next few days, the Sambisa forest, which is the den of the insurgents, will be cleared by the military.
“We have been assured that with the arrival of special Nigerian Army troops, all communities will be free in a short while.
“Going by signals being received, the entire operation will not last long.”
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, the Director of Search and Rescue of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), had told the deputy governor that the visit was to assess damages done by the insurgents in the state.
He said “this is an Inter-ministerial Committee comprising NEMA officials, officials from Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Ministry of Works, the Red Cross Society and others.
“We are here to carry out on-the-spot assessment on structures destroyed by the insurgents.’’
Otegbade said government planned to embark on massive reconstruction of damaged infrastructure in communities ravaged by the insurgents.
He added that “our task is to conduct assessment on the number of damaged structures in the state.
“The assessment will serve as prelude for massive reconstruction exercise so that displaced persons can go back home.’’
