“It is a very serious calamity, another serious humanitarian crisis which the state government cannot shoulder,” he told the BBC in an interview.
The governor, who said the support given to the flood victims was “never enough”, added that, “there is no way we can provide food to millions of people in one or two hours.
“So, what we decided is to retreat and organise ourselves. The only way we can organise ourselves is to ensure that the affected victims are resettled in camps. Then we will take the support to the camps, otherwise many will die as a result of receiving food and non-food items in queues.”
“I’m worried, yes, I’m seriously worried, but you also have to bear in mind that Borno State Government has established what we call Borno Model of Rehabilitation that has allowed many insurgents to repent.
“Within the last two years, over 200,000 Boko Haram members and their families have repented and, I think, this has also yielded positive results in ensuring return of peace and stability to Borno State.”
Zulum said it was sad that the state has witnessed another calamity just as it was struggling to emerge out of the disaster caused by Boko Haram insurgency.
“I can remember more than 300,000 people were killed in Borno State, thousands of classrooms were destroyed, hundreds of facilities were destroyed by the insurgency.
“We are just trying to get out of this problem and then now we witness another disaster, a very serious calamity, another serious humanitarian crisis which the state government cannot shoulder.”
