PDP nurtured Boko Haram to monster, FG replies ‘surprised’ Atiku

The Federal Government on Tuesday slammed former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar over a statement credited to him expressing surprise at the existence of Boko Haram insurgents.

NewsWireNGR reports that Atiku, during a town hall meeting recently claimed he did not understand the Boko Haram phenomenon, lamenting that despite the efforts of the Nigerian Army, the insurgency had not been eliminated.

Atiku said; “I still cannot understand why we should have Boko Haram. You see, I served in Borno State when it was in the North-East, and as a Customs officer and I was patrolling the entire North-East, so I am very conversant with the vegetation and with the border areas.

“I still cannot find a place in the Borno areas where anybody can hide and cannot be seen. I cannot understand, honestly, the Boko Haram phenomenon.”

Responding during an event organized to showcase the achievement of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said Atiku should throw the question to his party, PDP “under whose watch the Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009 and festered.”

In an opening remark, Mohammed said for six years until 2015, when the Buhari administration assumed office and inherited

Boko Haram, ”the PDP more or less nurtured the insurgents to the monster they later became.

“Alhaji Atiku should ask his party why it allowed Boko Haram to operate freely, bombing cities, motor parks, schools and other soft targets unrestrained.

“Alhaji Atiku, who was then residing in Abuja before porting to his new abode in Dubai, should ask his party, the PDP, while it allowed Boko Haram to bomb the police headquarters, the UN complex, a shopping mall and motor parks in Abuja with so much ease,” he said.

The minister said with the efforts and sacrifices of the Nigerian military, normalcy had been achieved in the North East, the home region of Boko Haram.

He said the Boko Haram terrorists had been cleared from most of their strongholds while the remnants were being restricted to the tumbus island around Lake Chad which was difficult to access.

“The good news this year is that an agricultural bumper harvest is assured, as farmers were able to carry out extensive farming, which had not been possible since the beginning of insurgency/terrorism in the North East,” he said.

The minister admonished Atiku to, while on campaigning and throwing political jabs, ”should take note of the popular idiom that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”