In reaction to statements credited to former Governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff, that he was not responsible for the upsurge of the Boko Haram crisis, former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, now senator representing Borno South in the Senate, Mohammed Ali Ndume has maintained that while he (Sheriff) may not be responsible for forming the sect, he is responsible for the crisis.
Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP in Abuja yesterday, Sen. Ndume said Sheriff mismanaged the existence of the group when he was the chief executive officer of the state and could not claim not to be responsible for the dimension the crisis has taken.
He said, “The former governor can say that he didn’t create Boko Haram but he created the crisis because he was the chief security officer of the state. He did not manage the crisis well and that is why we have found ourselves where we are today.
“If he didn’t create the crisis, then why did he apologise? You only apologise if you do something wrong, the management of Boko Haram was purely his responsibility and that led to the stand-off between the security operatives and the Yusuffiya followers,” he emphasised.
Ndume added, “There were extra-judicial killings and somebody must have ordered that.
Who did that? The Police that did it did not just act without orders so now that it has come to this level, he is saying he is not part of it? He cannot claim not to be part of it. In fact, the crisis is part of his own creation,” he stated.
The former governor on Wednesday denied that he did not apologise to Boko Haram as part of a peace deal with the sect, saying that he only apologised to every citizen of Borno State in his farewell speech when he was leaving office on May 29.
He said, “You can see that the Boko Haram said that they will stop what they were doing if the governors of Gombe, Bauchi and Borno apologised to them publicly. The two governors have done that publicly.
I only lifted from my May 29 speech on what I have done in the last eight years. I said I have served them for eight years; I must have in one way or the other offended people. I ask everybody that I have offended, including Boko Haram to forgive me.”