The Borno State Governor, Mr Babagana Zulum, has dismissed allegations by Omoyele Sowore over alleged billions spent on Boko Haram reintegration and the unlawful detention of #EndBadGovernance protesters, describing them as “pure imagination.”

Sowore, the African Action Congress presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, had, in a series of social media posts, accused Zulum of operating a torture chamber known as “The Crack FC” in Maiduguri, where he allegedly kept protesters for over a year.

One of his posts read:

“The heartless Governor of Borno, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, maintains a torture chamber with his security outfit ‘The Crack FC’ in Maiduguri, that’s where he kept his #EndBadGovernance victims for more than a year! WICKED!”

In another post, Sowore alleged that Zulum had jailed minors over their involvement in the protests, while allocating billions to Boko Haram “repentees.”

“This is not only unlawful but shameful. While Zulum allocates billions of naira to Boko Haram ‘repentees,’ he criminalises and imprisons young citizens whose only ‘crime’ is demanding accountability and good governance,” Sowore wrote.

Reacting via a phone conversation with Weekend PUNCH on Saturday, the governor’s Senior Technical Assistant on Print and Digital Communications, Abdulrahman Bundi, dismissed the claims as baseless and misleading.

“To be sincere with you, these are just pure imaginations of Sowore. There is nothing like that existing. It is baseless misinformation to say the governor ordered people to be held for a year. What does the governor have to do with the #EndBadGovernance protest? It is not even a state government affair—the protest is against the federal government,” Bundi said.

On the allegations of billions being spent to rehabilitate Boko Haram terrorists, Bundi clarified that the Deradicalisation, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration (DRR) programme is a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed primarily at assisting victims of insurgency.

“Let us be clear: the DRR is not just about Boko Haram terrorists. It is a multi-stakeholder approach to resolving the crisis in Borno. It is about bringing peace, rehabilitating those who were overrun, forcefully abducted, or engaged by Boko Haram. In fact, it focuses more on the victims of the crisis,” he explained.

He urged the public to access the DRR policy document online to avoid falling victim to misinformation.

“The DRR document is public. People should access it online, read it, and understand what it contains. You don’t have to sit down and castigate something you don’t even know,” he added.

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