By Marcus Ikechukwu
Babagana Zulum, Governor of Borno State has estimated losses suffered by the North East as a result of terrorism at about $6.9billion dollars.
He said the losses included over 5000 classrooms destroyed, 900,000 homes burnt beyond repairs, 713 energy distribution sources damaged, as well as 1600 public water sources destroyed too.
Zulum gave these account on Thursday, while briefing State House Correspondents, on plans by the Presidential Committee on Repatriation, Return and Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons in the North East of Nigeria.
The governor reiterated his advise to the federal government to engage the services of mechineries to put terrorism under checks once and for all, adding that ISWAP was fast gaining grounds in the North East and on the fringes of the Lake Chad.
According to him, the negative consequences suffered from Boko Haram will be nothing compared to what ISWAP will unleash if allowed to grow.
He said one of the reasons his administration is bent on relocating the Internally Displaced Persons IDPs back to their ancestral homes is because the camps are becoming a fertile ground for recruitment of foot soldiers for ISWAP.
On why he was in the habit of putting himself in harms way fighting terrorism in his state, he said he was not afraid to die, as long as it was not the will of God.