Boko Haram relocating to North-West: El-rufai

Kaduna Governor Nasir El-rufai says Boko Haram terrorists are relocating from the North-East zone to banditry-ravaged North-West zone.

Mr El-rufai stated this Thursday during the inaugural edition of the ‘Fountain Summit’, an event organised by the Ekiti government.

He said the development was as a result of the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), a breakaway faction of Boko Haram chasing away their counterpart from the North-East zone.

Ibrahim Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram was said to have been killed by ISWAP in May after several proclamation by the Nigerian military that it killed the leader of the Islamic group fighting to Islamize the nation.

Since after his dead, members of the Shekau-led group have reportedly being in disarray with many of its fighters joining the camp of ISWAP while others have been on the run.

“We have security challenges, but our investors know where their assets are and they know that those assets are safe and we’ve never seen the headlines of security affecting our inflow of investments,” the governor acknowledged. “But we must work on improving security or more than that, we must stop this ‘us versus them’ mentality and collaborate more closely.

“Remember once upon a time, Boko Haram was only in north-east. Now, the biggest fear we have in the north-west is that they are relocating to the north-west because they are being chased out from the north-east by ISWAP.

“When they are chased out of the north-west, where do you think they will come? Somewhere else. It is something we should all be concerned about; not only federal and state collaboration, but also across the country.

“Don’t see what is happening in Kaduna and say it is not my problem. It will be your problem one day, unless it is solved,” he added.