Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the slaughtered rice farmers in Zambari did not have military clearance to to be on the rice farms where they were captured by Boko Haram terrorists.

Speaking in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Monday, the presidential spokesperson said the massacre could have been avoided if they had sought military clearance to work on the rice farm.

Declaring that while he was not blaming the victims, the truth, he said, must be told.

According  to  him, another truth was that the government was very sad about the massacre Of the rice farmers.

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He stated that “Forty-three or thereabout of innocent farm workers, most of them had their throats slit by a heartless band of terrorists. It was indeed very unfortunate and the government feels very sad about it.”

Shehu while clearing the air stated that people needed to know what it was like in the Lake Chad Basin area.

According  to him, “Much of the area has been liberated from Boko Haram terrorists but there are a number of spaces that have not been cleared for the return of villagers who have been displaced.”

Shehu insisted that all of those places ought to pass the test of military clearances before farmers or settlers could resume activities on those fields.

He disclosed that terrorists had planted land mines in several places in Borno State.

Shehu also said that nobody ought to go to those  places until the military had cleared them.

Read him: “When people are willing to go back, a lot of those spaces are to be cleared and cast as being OK for human habitation or agricultural activities.”