By Ndahi Marama

MAIDUGURI—Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, yesterday, visited Gwoza Local Government Area and promised that the ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation of destroyed residential houses and public structures by Boko Haram terrorists would be completed by December.

He stated this at the palace of the Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Mohammed Idrissa Timta, while addressing the thousands of people, including traditional rulers and religious leaders, who have returned home.

Gwoza and Bama Local Government areas suffered the same destruction before they were declared as Boko Haram caliphate in August 2014.

Shettima, who had temporarily relocated his office to, and spent one week in Bama to oversee/supervise the rebuilding works, drove through Gwoza where he urged the Commissioner for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Dr. Babagana Zulum, to ensure that his ministry aligned with professional engineers/builders from Gwoza to immediately put the liberated town in good shape for the comfort of internally displaced persons, IDPs, most of whom had started returning home.

Before reaching Gwoza, the governor had a brief stop-over at Pulka town, where he distributed relief items to over 2,000 IDPs.

In his welcome address, the District Head of Pulka, Lawan Usman Pulka, told the governor that the biggest problem facing his people was lack of drinking water, and appealed to the governor to provide them with boreholes.

Shettima promised the people of Pulka that the state government would immediately deploy staff of the Ministry of Water Resources to drill boreholes for them.