Northeast Too Vast And Difficult To Police – Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has declared that it is difficult to police the northeast.



The vice president also stated that attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents would continue because the region is a vast area.

His spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement, quoted him as saying this during the Eid-al-adha lunch held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

According to Osinbajo, the northeast is equivalent of the whole of the United Kingdom plus Denmark or Switzerland.

He said: “I was speaking to the UK Foreign Minister a few days ago and I explained to him how it is so difficult to police the northeast. I said that this northeast that you speak about, over the past two years, we have managed to ensure that Boko Haram does not hold any territory, but there are still opportunistic attacks here and there.

“So, I explained to the Foreign Minister that we are still going to experience these attacks because of the vast area that we are dealing with. I said that the northeast is equivalent of the whole of the United Kingdom plus Denmark or Switzerland. So, we are dealing with a vast country.

“I have seen the vast farmlands of Kebbi, Jigawa and Kano. The other day we were in Taraba, a place that is already producing vegetables, cucumbers, peppers and supplying the major supermarkets in Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna that used to import these vegetables. Just five hectares of greenhouse in Taraba state is producing the needs of all the major supermarkets in Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos states.

“An Israeli farmer who works in one of those greenhouses, on getting to Jalingo for the first time and seeing the beautiful hills, sent a message to his wife saying, “We are close to heaven”. But by the time he got to Mambilla and got to the plateau, he sent another message and said, ‘We are now in heaven!’

“This is a country that has all of what other countries and people will spend money and other resources to go in search of, all of the tourism resources that people will spend money and get visas to go and see.

“This lunch this afternoon is how God wants us to be, to eat together, live together, work together and build that nation that God had in mind. I know that most of us here understand that plan of God for us. I certainly look forward to that country.”