BY DANIEL IDONOR

ABUJA – VICE President Namadi Sambo, Thursday,  presided over a two-hour security council meeting over the Boko Haram insurgence which has reached alarming proportion in recent weeks,  claiming several lives.

The meeting came a day after President Goodluck Jonathan, in New York, promised to adopt the “carrot and stick” options to contain violent activities, mostly associated with the Boko Haram religious sect.

Speaking on the outcome of the meeting, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State said security chiefs at the meeting cross-fertilised ideas on security challenges facing Borno State.

He disclosed that the Vice President has pledged  Federal Government support towards “nipping in the bud once and for all the Boko Haram insurrections in the North-East.”

On the carrot and stick approach , he said, “dialogue is an ongoing business. For those that are ready to lay down their arms, the President was very empathic in New York when he said we were going to apply the carrot and stick approach. For those that are willing to lay down their arms, I believe the Federal Government and the state government will be very magnanimous. This is an agenda the state government has been championing since we came to power.

“Let open the line of dialogue, know their grievances and see how we can address them but the line of dialogue is very much open. Boko Haram, I wish to reiterate, is a political problem and a political problem always need a political solution.

“We cannot talk to them from a position of weakness, we have to talk to them from a position of strength and the Federal Government has pledged all the support needed for us to restore peace and tranquility to Borno State.”

Shettima also dismissed allegations by the leading opposition party in the state of politicising  the crisis, saying some of the utterance by  members  of the     opposition “are contempt,” noting that he would not join issues on such thing with them.

“ I am a leader for all the people of Borno State irrespective of their political affiliation, religious persuasion and professional background. It is not for me to pass comment and give them the oxygen of relevance by responding to such diatribe,” he said.

Also in attendance were Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika; Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal Mohammed Dikko Umar, Borno C0ommisoner of Police M. D. Abubakar, representatives of Chief of Naval Staff and Inspector General of Police.