Flooding: I’m seriously worried some Boko Haram leaders might have escaped from prison –Zulum

Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, has said he is worried that some Boko Haram leaders serving jail terms might have escaped from the correctional centre in the state following a flood disaster that ravaged Maiduguri, the state capital.

Daily Trust had reported how flood claimed lives and destroyed properties worth millions of naira in the city.

According to reports, the flood also destroyed a part of the old prison from where many inmates were evacuated to the new maximum security prison in Maiduguri.

A security source confirmed this to our correspondent.

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There were reports (which Daily Trust could not independently confirm) that some prison inmates were evacuated, and that some of them escaped.

When asked in an interview with BBC, if he was worried that some Boko Haram leaders might have escaped, Governor Zulum responded in the affirmative.

He said, “I’m worried, yes, I’m seriously worried. But you also have to bear in mind that Borno State Government has established what we call Borno Model of Rehabilitation that has allowed many insurgents to repent. Within the last two years, over 200,000 Boko Haram members and their families have repented and, I think, this has also yielded positive results in ensuring return of peace and stability to Borno State.”

Zulum decried how the state witnessed another calamity amid its challenging security situation.

“I can remember more than 300,000 people were killed in Borno State, thousands of classrooms were destroyed, hundreds of facilities were destroyed by the insurgency.

“We are just trying to get out of this problem and then now we witnessed another disaster-—a very serious calamity, another serious humanitarian crisis which the state governor cannot shoulder,” he said.

The governor added that the support given to the flood victims was “never enough”.

“There is no way we can provide food to millions of people in one or two hours. So, what we decided is to retreat and organise ourselves. The only way we can organise ourselves is to ensure that the affected victims are resettled in camps. Then we will take the support to the camps, otherwise many will die as a result of receiving food and non-food items in queues,” he said.