A budget proposal of ₦921.9 billion has been earmarked by the federal government to fight the menace of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Niger Delta militants and other miscreants who have been terrorising many parts of the country.
President Goodluck Jonathan, on Tuesday, made this revelation while presenting the total budget of ₦4.749 trillion before a joint session of the National Assembly.
He said security has to take the lion share out of the total budget because of “the threat of Boko Haram, Niger Delta militants and increasing spate of insecurity and wanton destruction of lives and property by criminal which are on the rise.” He said the government would spend the amount to ensure the safety of security of lives and property.
And to reinforce the nation’s security challenge, Maiduguri, the Bornu State capital experienced yet another bomb explosion as President Jonathan was reading the 2012 budget yesterday morning.
Although the bomb explosion, which occurred on Ali Ngoshe Street in the London-Chiki area of the city recorded no casualty, soldiers in the Joint Task Force reportedly started shooting indiscriminately after the blast, killing three kids.
Boko Haram has continued to pose serious security concern in some northern parts of the country, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, leading to the recent Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which ended last Tuesday with another bomb explosion in Kaduna State by the dreaded Islamic sect.
Analysts of the 2012 budgets say the security vote is justifiable as only days after Boko Haram bombing in Kaduna, members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) caused a stir in Lagos as they marched in the city.
They were protesting against the general insecurity in the country, especially the terrorist activities of the Boko Haram, the OPC leader, Dr Frederick Fasehun said.
The OPC members, estimated to be almost a thousand, marched from the old toll gate through Ojota, Maryland, Ikorodu Road and Ojuelegba to the National Stadium in Lagos, where the procession terminated with a rally.
As they marched on the major highway, they brandished guns and other weapons. They shot sporadically into the air, causing panic and fear among pedestrians and motorists.
The long procession was trailed by a long convoy of vehicles inside which some of the OPC members sat, according to eye-witnesses.
The leader of the OPC, Frederick Fasehun told reporters that the march was “to protest against all those things that are distasteful to Nigeria, including insecurity, unemployment and terrorism.”
Also last week, travellers passing through Lokoja-Abuja highway had a terrible experience, following the blocking of the road by militants from the Niger Delta who said they were going to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to protest their exclusion from the amnesty programme of the federal government.
The development compelled thousands of vehicles passing through the ever-busy road to be stranded for several hours, with long traffic hold up, before a combined team of the military and mobile policemen could clear the road.
About 1,600 militants, travelling with 300 different brands of vehicles were later dispersed by security men.