Borno State Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation, Youth Empowerment and Sports, Saina Buba, has clarified his controversial remark about “cutting off” the fingers of critics, insisting that the statement was figurative and was not directed at members of opposition parties.
Buba made the clarification during a press briefing in Maiduguri on Monday, August 31, following widespread criticism over comments he made at a political gathering two days earlier.
Speaking at a campaign inauguration organised by the City Boy Movement, a political support group backing President Bola Tinubu’s second-term bid, Buba had warned individuals opposing the administration of Governor Babagana Zulum.
In a video that later went viral, he said:
“Whoever raises their fingers against us, we will do the same to them. If you raise your fingers again, we will cut them off.”
However, while addressing journalists on Monday, Buba said the statement had been taken out of context. According to him, the remark was directed at some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the North-East who attended the event and not members of opposition parties.
He explained that the gathering was strictly an APC event and was not a meeting involving different political parties.
“The meeting was purely APC members gathering, not political parties. It’s a City Boy Movement which was designed to promote economic empowerment, self-reliance, skills development and improved livelihoods, among party loyalists,” he said.
Buba said his comments were made in response to what he described as anti-party activities by some APC members following the party’s primaries.
He said:
“We in the APC observed that immediately after the party’s primaries, some aggrieved members have started playing anti-party politics, and we felt it’s necessary to call them to order by telling them those who vote for APC candidates will be fed with honey, while those who don’t will be caned.”
The commissioner maintained that his reference to cutting off fingers was not a literal threat of physical violence.
According to him, he was speaking figuratively about the possibility of restricting government empowerment and welfare programmes to loyal party members while excluding individuals involved in anti-party activities.
Buba also said he had no apology for the remark, insisting that it was made at a gathering of people who shared the same political affiliation and had committed themselves to the ideals of the APC.