The sole administrator Borno State Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (BOCCIMA), Alhaji Ahmed Ashemi, has backed the recent executive order by Governor Babagana Umara Zulum banning metal scavenging in the state.
Ashemi said anybody who has structure or equipment that is heavy with metal has suffered from the activities of the metal scavengers in the state, adding that sometimes public utilities, cables , generating sets and others have been vandalised by scavengers. The BOCCIMA boss said this in an exclusive interview at the weekend in Maiduguri.
LEADERSHIP reports that Zulum had imposed indefinite ban on metal scavenging activities across the entire 27 local government areas of the state.
The governor’s ban aims to forestall continued killings of scavengers by Boko Haram insurgents at the outskirts of some local government areas and to stop theft of public and private property. Many youths who go to deserted communities in search of metals have been ambushed and killed by insurgents.
Ashemi said,” Let me give you a typical example, in front of my gate, I have a security light, one morning when my security man went out, he saw a scavenger pulling down security lights on my gate. Another way people have suffered from the metal scavengers are construction sites where they go and cut iron rods and run away.
“The government is right to have stopped scavengers’ activities in the state, otherwise, they will be operating with ammunition and they are equally endangering their lives because the terrorists kill them in different areas.”
“The governor is the chief security officer of the state and he is someone who is really up and doing. He has the opportunity to consult widely, and see how he can enforce the ban. I think he was right in banning them.”
