Borno State Commissioner of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Mustapha Gubio, has said the Boko Haram insurgency was hindering execution of developmental projects in five local governments of the state.
The State has 27 local governments. According to him, the five local government areas where developments are been stalled are Guzamala, Kukawa, Abadam, Marte and Abadam. He said the five are totally inaccessible due to the presence of the Boko Haram and ISWAP members.
The commissioner pointedly said recent claim by President Muhammadu Buhari that all local governments have been secured and are now inhabited is untrue.
The commissioner speaking in Maiduguri said several efforts made to move into the affected communities for reconstruction works after they were liberated by the military, had failed as the areas are still under Boko Haram.
The military had consistently claimed no single area in the state was under the control of Boko Haram insurgents. This had been echoed by  President Buhari last week in his June 12, 2020 nationwide broadcast that âall the local government that were taken over by the Boko Haram insurgents in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa have been recovered and are now occupied by indigenes of these areas who were hitherto forced to seek a living in areas far from their ancestral homes.â
The commissioner however said developmental projects in the affected areas located in the northern part of the state have been halted by Boko Haram.
âSome of the local government areas are still not accessible,â insisted.
According to him, âIn Guzamala local government, the army base has been destroyed and the security forces were dislodged. We cannot go to Guzamala to execute any project until when there will be security presence there.
âStill, under the same local government, we moved to Mailari for the construction of 500 housing units, there was the presence of police and military base there. But when we started work, the army base was attacked so we had to withdraw because we could not continue with the work.
âEven last month we moved 50, 000 blocks to Guzamala to start work but we still could not work due to insecurity.
âAbadam is another town destroyed by Boko Haram; it has the most difficult terrain in Borno State. It is about 250km from Maiduguri, and it has no access road. There is no way you can start reconstruction works there unless there is a good road. You can only access the local government through the Niger Republic.
âAs for Kukawa local government, there hasnât been the presence of the Nigerian Army in the area until last month. For now, there is no single person in Kukawa as I am talking to you now.
âThe governor is just planning to visit Baga, the major town in Kukawa local government to access the damages there. The level of destruction in Kukawa wouldnât have been much but due to the long period of desertion of the communities, the building there have begun to deteriorate,â he added.
