Deputy Governor of Adamawa State, Bala Ngilari, on Wednesday distanced himself from reports, which quoted him as justifying the activities of the Boko Haram sect unleashing terror on the North- Eastern part of the country.
A national daily had quoted Ngillari as saying at the commissioning of the Adamawa State office of the Citizens Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria that the insurgents had a genuine case as a lot of their members were victims of injustice.
But the deputy governor, in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, said he would never stoop so low to the level of justifying the activities of a sect that has gone all out to exterminate his people.
He insisted that he would never make such statement at any forum and in whatever capacity.
The statement read, “A personality of my social and political standing in the affairs of our dear country, Nigeria, can never condescend to the little level of justifying the activities of a sect that seems all out to exterminate the population from which I emerged; in which I live; from which I savour belonging, comfort, love and affection; and which I am most opportuned to lead in my privileged capacity.
“I, therefore, plead with all humility, with my well-wishers, every person concerned or affected in any way by that report, and my entire fellow countrymen to dismiss that misrepresentation of me in that news story as just one of the umpteenth devastating news reports usually carried to tarnish the image of innocent public office holders like me.
“It severely grieves every good citizen of this country to observe that such press misrepresentations have become an incurable ailment in the class of AIDS.
“I plead with my fellow countrymen in the mass media to exercise deep caution in reporting public office holders with regard to such extremely sensitive issues as insecurity”.
