The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Borno State, Mr. Kaka Lawan, said on Tuesday that Boko Haram was a creation of the factional Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ali Modu Sheriff.
Lawan, who spoke at the ongoing 56th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Port Harcourt, explained that the insecurity created by Sheriff in Borno few years ago metamorphosed into Boko Haram.
Calling for the arrest and prosecution of the factional chairman of the PDP, Lawan specifically said that bad governance and impunity reigned during Sheriff’s administration as the governor of the state between 2003 and 2011.
He added that the creation of the Ministry of Religious Affairs by the then Sheriff administration in Borno and the killing of the head of the ministry in the 2009 turmoil worsened the level of insecurity in the state.
“Ali Modu Sheriff was a former governor of Borno State for eight years and left the state in a state of insecurity.
“The issue that happened in Borno, the insecurity that brought us to this situation we are in, was as a result of bad governance, illiteracy, lack of respect for the rule of law, impunity in the administration of Ali Modu Sheriff and the Federal Government then did not checkmate his excesses and it escalated to this level.
“Up to today, he is moving freely and nobody is talking to him. All hands must be on deck, if actually justice must be done to the hundreds of people that were killed in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“He (Sheriff) should be arrested. He should be investigated. He should be interrogated for the facts that we have just mentioned in Port Harcourt here. His records were known to everybody, even to you media men.
“The Federal Government is aware; the state government is aware; you media men are aware. They are not only facts; they are notorious facts. All and sundry are aware.
“Can he deny that fact that he was a governor between 2003 and 2011? Can he deny that Muhammed Yusuf freely operated between 2003 and 2009 and the aberration laws he passed?” Lawan queried.
But Sheriff has dismissed the allegation by the commissioner, saying Lawan was not sincere and that he was acting the script allegedly written by Governor Kashim Shettima.
Sheriff, who spoke through his Special Adviser of Media, Mallam Inuwa Bwala, said that the commissioner should look inward to the government to enable him to know those behind the Boko Haram menace in the state.
He said, “The commissioner is talking rubbish. He’s acting the script of his governor. Sheriff made the governor what he is today.
“Those who are making the allegation should know that three of his (Sheriff) brothers were killed by Boko Haram, his family is being threatened by the Boko Haram.
“The AGF’s predecessor died in circumstances not clear. What killed him and who killed him? The people are suspecting who is behind the killing. I pity him, he doesn’t know what he is talking about. He is serving in a government that created and funded Boko Haram.”
– Punchng