Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, has cut short his official visit to both Sudan and United Kingdom over the ongoing siege on Bama by members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect.
The governor who left the state late last week was expected to pay a visit while in Sudan and UK on school authorities and over 70 students recently sponsored by the State Government for Medicine and Petroleum Geo-Sciences.
It was gathered that the governor on returning into the country, held crucial meetings in Abuja in connection with happenings in Bama and rest of the state.
The governor was also said to have approved the formation and release of funds to a committee set up to coordinate distribution of relief materials and management of victims.
According to sources, the governor was scheduled to leave for Maiduguri on Wednesday evening from Abuja.
The former media aide to the governor, Mallam Isa Gusau, revealed in an e-mail to journalists that: “Shettima returned mainly to provide needed leadership, be with his people, build public confidence, coordinate relief for victims, step up co-funding and psychological support for military.”
He revealed that the governor left the shores of Nigeria on Sunday night and was scheduled to meet officials at a university in Sudan where 50 female citizens of the state currently undergo state-sponsored degree programs to become medical doctors under the State Female Medical Education/Intervention Programme designed to train abroad, 300 female doctors in five years.
He said, “Shettima was also to be in United Kingdom to meet 20 students undergoing Petroleum Geo-Sciences in addition to signing agreements for other human capacity development programs and a follow up meeting with a water systems company required for domestic use and irrigation agriculture in Borno aimed at boosting jobs creation as a strategy to discourage economic based recruitment by Boko Haram insurgents.”
