REVEALING: Why Monarchs Are Boko Haram Targets-- Shehu of Borno

                                      
The Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar El-Kanemi, said on Sunday that northern traditional rulers had become the target of Boko Haram because they have been cooperating with security agents to
fight terrorism in the Northeast.  According to him, 14, out of 59 district heads in his kingdom, had been killed by the terrorist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, PUNCH reports.

El-Kanemi who is the Chancellor of the Niger Delta University, disclosed this while speaking in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, when he visited Governor Seriake Dickson, a statement by the governor’s spokesperson, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said.

Condemning the insurgents attack, the Shehu said it was wrong for them to claim that they were fighting an Islamic cause.

"It is wrong to force somebody to convert. There is nowhere in the Bible or Q’uran that we are asked to use force to convert people. They’ve attacked mosques, killed Imams, district heads, and even my own brothers," he lamented.

El-Kanemi reiterated his resolve to help in the fight against terrorism, saying, as the first class traditional ruler in the North to be targeted by a suicide bomber, he would support any process that would restore peace, harmony and unity to his over 1,200 year-old kingdom in particular and Nigeria in general.

He expressed optimism that Boko Haram would fail just as Maitatsine failed in the 1980s.

Also speaking, the governor of Bayelsa state, Seriake Dickson warned the political class and religious leaders to refrain from making comments that would inflame passions in the face of current security challenges in the country, while urging political and religious leaders to take steps that would reflect support and empathy for the security agencies, instead of capitalising on the situation to score cheap political points.

Recently, report surfaced that district heads were in fear that they might be attacked by the terrorist following the recent killing of the Emir of Gwoza in Borno State, Alhaji Idrisa Timtawho was ambushed on his way to attend the burial of the Emir of Gombe, Shehu Abubakar.