Skip to main content

N5bn Monthly Not Enough For 2.7m IDPs – Senator


No amount of resources can sustain the 2.7 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps in the northeast, not even N5 billion monthly, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Special Duties, Yusuf Yusuf, has said.


He also urged the federal government to stop “IPD syndrome” and called on security agencies to do more to end the insurgency so that people could safely return to their various towns and villages.


The lawmaker said this while briefing journalists on his committee’s findings after an oversight visit to various IDP camps in the northeast, Daily Trust Newspaper reported.

Mr Yusuf noted that most of the victims of insurgency were eager to return home and fend for themselves, but their villages were still inaccessible.


Nigeria, he said, might witness a major crisis from the IDPs, who were mostly orphans below the age of 18, if nothing was done to get them back to their villages.


“It is a very sad thing that I have seen in the IDP camps. There are 2.7 million people in the IDP camps. No amount of resources that can sustain or take care of their palliatives.


“We cannot continue to believe that the IDP syndrome should continue. We must exit it at one time or the other. It is a sad thing. There are children who are orphans in all respects and most of them are below the age of 18. It’s a time bomb waiting to explode.

"The government, the development partners are doing their best but the resources are very small. We cannot sustain spending about N5 billion a month to take care of these people,” he said.


Mr Yusuf’s remarks come on the heels of concerns about the safety and welfare of the IDPs, especially women and children.

The UN has also raised concerns about the population of the camps and the high risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 disease.


To further cater for the IDPs, the Minister of humanitarian, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Farouq, has said the Nigerian Air Force will commence air-dropping of food relief to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in difficult to reach locations of Borno State.


The federal government had earlier outlined the challenges faced by NGOs operating in the northeast to include insecurity, floods or terrain, which it said could be addressed with the support of the security services.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

$114.28m COVID-19 loan: SERAP asks World Bank to make Nigeria ‘publicly commit to transparency’

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP) has sent an open letter to the World Bank President Mr David Malpass, urging him to use his “good offices to encourage the Federal Government and 36 state governments to publicly commit to transparency and accountability in the spending of the $114.28m credit and grant for COVID-19, which the Bank’s Board of Directors recently approved for Nigeria, including by publishing details on a dedicated websit". SERAP also urged Mr Malpass to “put pressure on authorities and the 36 state governors to accept voluntary scrutiny by Nigerians and civil society regarding the spending of the funds and use of the resources, including on how they will spend the money to buy medical equipment, and improve access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene" The World Bank Board of Directors last Friday approved a $114.28 financing “to help Nigeria prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 with a specific focus on state level...

Notorious Fulani Boys Killing Farmers In Edo Forest Caught & Their Confession

Notorious Fulani Boys Killing Farmers In Edo Forest Caught And Their Confession Will Shock U. Video Below:

Looted COVID Palliatives Were Meant For Special Vulnerable Group – Kwara Govt

  The state government in a statement signed by the Commissioner for Communications, Harriet Afolabi-Oshatimehin, on Friday, said the items were meant for the poor and a special group of vulnerable people. The Commissioner said further that CACOVID and the state government on September 23rd flagged off the distribution of the palliatives and had distributed the majority of the palliatives to the identified vulnerable households in 15 of the 16 local government areas of the state. “The remaining palliatives in the terminal, which the hoodlums preyed on until chased away by security agencies, were meant for special vulnerable groups and just one local government where names of the beneficiaries have just been delivered and officials have started distributing when the street urchins breached the wall of the facility,” the statement added. Afolabi-Oshatimehin explained that the looted items were meant for specific households, as dictated by CACOVID, and so names had to be properly gene...