Buhari changes talk, says Boko Haram is a fraud

The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, has changed speech, he has said the claim by the Boko Haram sect that it is a religious group is a fraud.

He also said the sect would be denied a recruitment base the moment people in local communities realised that its claim of being a religious group was nothing but a fraud.

Buhari said this while receiving a delegation from Nasarawa State which was led by the state Governor, Tanko Al-Makura, at the Defence House, on Monday.

In a statement signed by the Director of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mallam Garba Shehu, Buhari was quoted as saying, “The fraud called Boko Haram can be defeated by denying it a recruitment base.

“No religion allows for the killing of children in school dormitory, in markets and places of worship. They have nothing to do with religion. They are terrorists and we are going to deal with them as they deal with terrorists anywhere.”

The President-elect also said he was greatly pained by the destruction of schools in the north-eastern part of the country.

This, he noted, could deny thousands of children access to education and a better future unless something was done urgently to avert “this tragedy.”

“The worst thing anybody can do is to deny children access to education. That will be destructive to their lives and we are not going to allow that to happen,” the President-elect said.

He also said that his government would help the states to get more money to improve infrastructure by ensuring that all federally-collectible revenues were paid directly into the Federation Account and each tier of government given its due share.

Buhari was also quoted as saying, “As at now, the government does not even know how many revenue accounts it has. We will give all the tiers of government what is due to them but we will hold them accountable as we would the Federal Government.”

Buhari while describing Nasarawa State as his own “political laboratory,” meaning the only CPC-controlled state out of the 36 others. He adjudged the experiment as a success.

He said, “From one state, I now have 22 political laboratories.”

He commended Al-Makura for surviving many impeachment plots saying, “Without Nasarawa, there would not have been the APC.”

Earlier, Al-Makura had said he led the delegation to congratulate Buhari on his victory which was not only a victory for him but a victory for Nigerians.