SAN FRANCISCO, August 03, (THEWILL) – The 312 Local Government ward councillors in Borno State, under the aegis of the Borno Councillors Forum Sunday in Maiduguri, the state capital, pledged their full support for the second term ambition of Governor Kashim Shettima in 2015.
Maintaining that they were not ready to plunge blindly into the deep ocean of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the councillors said they were ready to go the whole hog with Shettima.
The councillors made their stand known at a media briefing they organised to mobilise support for Shettima, saying they will not join the bandwagon in following a former governor of the state, Senator Ali Modu-Sherrif,who has indicated interest in defecting from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP as some politicians in the state were already doing.
They maintained that Shettima is “eminently qualified to deserve a second time given the landmark achievements he was able to achieve in the last three years.”
Led by the chairman of the Forum, Honourable Yusuf Markus Sawa and its secretary, Abdullahi Muhammed Sheikh,the councillors said they were speaking for all the APC members in the 3,993 electoral units of the state.
“As far as 2015 is concerned in Borno State, Governor Kashim Shettima’s landmark people-oriented projects executed during this difficult period is his visa for another second term.
“We don’t have to deceive ourselves about the political reality in Borno State; we are the ones that are at the grassroots and we know the only person that can lead us to the promised land is Governor Shettima; that is why the entire 312 councillors that represent the 3,993 electoral units in the state are showing our 100 percent support for him,” chairman of the Forum, Sawa, stated .
According to Sawa, everyone had thought that the state would have been crippled by Boko Haram insurgency but Shettima has been keeping the state running.
“The governor has identified education as the best panacea for uplifting Borno people and ending insurgency, that was why he invested so much in education by sponsoring Borno indigenes to study abroad; support girl child education; increase study allowances of medical students; and above all; he personally purchased mega buses to enhance free transportation of students from their homes to schools in Maiduguri.
“How could we turn our backs against a man who against all odds has been able to give a new face to healthcare through the renovation of hospitals, improved maternal healthcare and construction of roads and drainages within various parts of the Maiduguri metropolis and other towns outside the state capital.
“Even if we don’t have any reason to support Shettima and remain in the APC, his giant stride in the areas of housing where about 2,500 housing estates are being put up in the state solely for the poor residents of the state as well as his huge investment in the agric sector to empower the farmers are enough reason for us to sacrifice our all for this illustrious son of Borno who has the masses at heart,” Sawa said.
