The wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, on Wednesday donated assorted relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Benue.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mrs. Buhari, who was in Benue to empathise with the state government on the recent farmers/herdsmen crisis, was represented by the wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Oludolapo Osinbajo.
Donating the materials at Nogowa Secondary School, Wadata Camp, Makurdi, Mrs Buhari commiserated with the bereaved families, saying that the government was committed to their plight.
She said that the Federal Government understood what the victims were passing through and assured them that government would not abandon them at this point of their sufferings.
“I have heard and seen your cries. Cry no more, for we are with you.
“Today in Benue I have seen old and young men, women and children in the camp and I can see that they have gone through a lot of pains.
“I have seen that by their looks, it is evident that they are tired of living in the camps but they have no homes because their homes have been destroyed.
“We are really worried about your situation but do not lose hope we are with you, and we will never abandon you at this point of your need,” Mrs Buhari said.
Earlier in his remarks, Gov. Samuel Ortom appealed to the Federal Government to tighten security at boarders to end the continued influx of foreign herdsmen into the state.
Ortom explained that foreign herdsmen were behind the incessant attacks on his people since 2011.
The governor said, “Unless they are chased out, it would be hard to maintain peace in the country.
“These herdsmen are very destructive and well-armed. They kill women and children on sight.
“They are completely different from the Fulani’s that we have lived and cohabited with over the years.
“We understand that the herdsmen came from Mali, Ghana, Congo, Niger among others and are killing us every day with impunity. This must stop.
“As we speak, over eight Local Governments have been affected across the state. The situation is really overwhelming,” said the governor.
The governor said that there was no land for grazing in the state, explaining that all lands belong to farmers in the state.
He said that 85 per cent of the state population were farmers and occupied the little available land, adding that it would be difficult to create a grazing reserve in the state.
He suggested that the herdsmen should rather embrace ranches as it was being practiced in developed countries.
NAN reports that Mrs. Buhari donated rice, multivitamins supplements, cooking oil, garri, tomatoes to the Benue IDPs.
Staff of Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), through the company’s ‘Let’s Care Initiative’, have donated relief materials worth over N30million to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
This is in addition to the award of scholarships worth N10million per year for 10 pupils each in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states for five years.
The initiative, established last July, is aimed at providing comfort and succour to the IDPs, as the Federal Government records success in addressing the insurgency and resettling displaced persons.
The General Manager, External Relations Division, Kudo Eresia-Eke said over 100 NLNG staff volunteered to raise funds for the project.
Distribution of relief materials was carried out in two phases last October and this month with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the States’ Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), and Non-Governmental Agencies (NGOs), such as MUNA and Heeba Foundations.
The camps they visited include ICCM Benin Camp, Edo State; Kabusa and Kuchingoro Camps in Abuja; Konduga, Mafa Road Muna Park and Gubio Road Housing Estate IDP camps in Bornu State; Damare, St Theresa and Malkoni camps in Adamawa State; and Bukar El-kanemi and Pampomari IDP camps in Yobe State.
The sponsor of the initiative, Mr. Isa Inuwa, said: “Let’s Care IDP initiative’ is about awareness and reaching out. It is underpinned by the concepts of gratitude and humanity in all of us.”
He added: “What you see as the end results of the efforts, sacrifice and generosity of so many, are the truck-load of relief materials our staff take to the camps themselves to distribute. In addition to material contributions, the effort has created awareness about the plight of the IDPs who have been displaced for no fault of theirs.
“We have witnessed an unprecedented demonstration of empathy and a deep sense of compassion towards humanity by many staff. Along with other well-meaning Nigerians, we must continue to give the IDPs hope that tomorrow is going to be better and get them back a normal and decent life.’’
Wassa and Games Village Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Abuja bubbled with life recently when the National Troupe of Nigeria performed to entertain them. Edozie Udeze was there
Dance has been discovered to be one of the best ways to reach out to people across cultures and climes. A lot of people feel more at home when some certain messages are disseminated to them through theatre. In most cases, dance-drama becomes the best way to do this. This indeed is what the National Troupe of Nigeria led by Akin Adejuwon has been doing in the past one year or so.
For every clime or terrain in Nigeria, the Troupe has discovered the kind of dance-drama that suits them. It is with this sort of approach that Adejuwon and the Troupe have been using to disseminate the message of love, oneness, peaceful co-existence and tolerance so as to curry for togetherness in the society. It is also for the youth to embrace dance.
With Murna which is an Hausa name for love, Adejuwon has just concluded a tour of two Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Abuja, the nation’s capital. The two camps were Wassa and the Games village. At Wassa where about 4,600 IDPs are kept, most of who are from Borno and Yobe states, their joy knew no bounds when the artistes arrived with pomp and pageantry. The camp came alive as soon the first dance was introduced. The rustling and acclaim among the people showed how much they missed home. Murna epitomized love; love anchored around folklore, moonlight stories and the tendency for people to live in unity, where communality holds sway.
This was why Adejuwon told them that in spite of the Boko Haram crisis which caused their displacement, Nigeria has not forgotten them. “This dance is to let you know there is a future in dance-drama as a profession. Music is good, not only to make you happy, but for you to make it your means of livelihood. We are here today to dance to make you feel a sense of belonging. This dance therefore is for you, it is to show that we still appreciate you as fellow Nigerians”.
The Troupe danced with flourish, using different settings in the social lives of the people to manifest affection. For assistance, the drama of the classroom during which a session in school was depicted drew unprecedented attention from the crowd. Both mothers and children became part of it that at a stage, it appeared it was truly a classroom session. The enthusiasm was too much. The teacher taught in Hausa and English while the drums beat away to elucidate the scenes.
The hilarious responses of the people proved how close the drama was to their immediate needs. Beyond what the dances proved, both to the young and the old, they all swayed and moved their legs and waists to the rhythmic tunes of drums. Both the visit of the officials of government to douse the political development in the community and the basket dance to show love and communality, all proved the need to bring the people closer to one another. In this, music became a unifying factor.
This euphoria followed the Troupe to the Games village camp, Abuja, where the inmates equally staged their own dance. It was to show that they have not lost touch with home. As soon as the Troupe finished their own performances, they mounted the stage with a dance-drama tagged Mandras dance. Mandras dance is owned by both Gwoza and Gamboru indigenes who often use it to unwind when the farming season is over.
According to Tanko Bintu from Gwoza, “this is made up of the branches we carry in our hands. The tree branches symbolize peace. Then the cricket-like noises we make is to usher in the beauty of the dance itself. We dance to show love, to show that farming is over and it is time to relax. That is why you can see both the old and the young involved in it. Today we did it to show our appreciation to the National Troupe of Nigeria.” Bintu himself is also a dancer.
When the management of the Troupe donated food items to the IDPs, the joy in their hearts knew no end. The gesture was to help augment their maintenance and to ensure that the inmates do not really feel left out by Nigerians. Speaking on behalf of the Artistic Director of the Troupe, Bisi Ayodele praised the IDPs for their resilience in the face of hardship caused by Boko Haram. “But we are here to do the best we can,” he quickly added.
“Our being here today is part of the Federal government project to reach out to all of you to show that we care.”
And truly the government cared because even as the drums stopped beating and most people were set to go, the crowd still lingered on, expecting more shows to happen. Some of the children in the camp were pleased to watch the show. One of them by name Usman Halilu told The Nation that he would like to be a dancer in future.
He said “what the Troupe did today is good for the youth. Many of us did not realize the importance of dance as a profession until today. When I finish secondary school I would like to come to Lagos to enlist with the Troupe.” Halilu is just 12 years old but his eyes and attention are already focus on dance as a way of life. This is the whole essence of what the Troupe has been doing by using dance and drama to solicit for peace, unity, love and tolerance in Nigeria.
The Senate Tuesday asked its Appropriation Committee to allocate N10 million in the 2016 budget for the relocation and resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.
The fund, the upper chamber said, should be sourced from the Service Wide Vote as provided in the budget.
The resolution followed a motion by Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume and eight others entitled “interim financial and material support/ assistance to IDPs returnees in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.”
Apart from the fund, the Senate also asked the Federal Government to release grains from the strategic grain reserve to the insurgency affected states.
It urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the refugee commission to make special arrangement for repatriation and resettlement of Nigerian refugees in Cameroun, Niger and Chad.
The upper chamber asked its relevant committees to write a letter of appreciation to the embassies of the host countries where the refugees were accommodated.
It said that the Victim Support Fund should also allocate reasonable amount from the fund for immediate relocation and resettlement of IDPs pending the short and medium term plans they might have.
Taraba, Plateau, Benue and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, it said, should also benefit from the arrangement.
Ndume in his lead debate noted that there was no doubt that the Federal Government is winning the war against insurgency in the north east particularly Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.
He said that most of the local governments, towns and villages hitherto occupied by the insurgents have been recaptured and secured by the Nigerian security forces particularly the army.
Ndume added that he is aware that the highways leading to the local governments from the state headquarters of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States have been demined and opened for commuters.
He noted that the IDPs who ran away from their homes during the heat of insurgency lost everything to Boko Haram insurgents.
He said that most of the IDPs are relatively poor with no savings, source of income or gainful employment.
The Borno South lawmaker expressed concern that for two years consecutively, the people in the affected states have not been able to farm while many people especially children are dying due to hunger and sanitation related diseases.
He also expressed worry that IDPs that are eager to return home or are being relocated have nothing to take home and have nothing meet at home from what they left behind when they ran away.
Ndume concluded for the IDPs to return home, “they need immediate and interim financial and material assistance in term of cash transfer and food relief to start their lives all over in the short term before the intervention from proposed North East Development Commission, Save School Initiative or any form of intervention.”
Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said that the Senate should commend the efforts of the security agencies “because without their efforts the idea of the IDPs going home will be impossible.
More than a year ago, some 50 young people undertook the arduous journey from the town of Chibok in the north-eastern state of Borno to seek sanctuary in the capital city Lagos.
Local parents, appalled by the April 2014 kidnapping of nearly 300 female students by the jihadist group Boko Haram, had sent their own children to stay with friends or relatives until peace returned.
Conditions were tough on the three-day bus journey with little food and water. Now, although the young people are safe from the insurgency ravaging the north-east of their country, their lives in the vast city of Lagos are far from easy.
More than two million people have been internally displaced in Nigeria. The majority have found refuge among host communities, while some live in camps with support from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). They must depend on aid from NGOs, religious bodies and the charity of individuals.
A lack of government oversight means that fundraising is vulnerable to corruption, and some IDP leaders complained bitterly of NGOs that collected money but failed to implement any projects.
In particular, there is little help available for children separated from their parents, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. The plight of the children from Chibok reflects the wider experience of many thousands of young IDPs in Nigeria who face an uncertain future after fleeing violence in the north-east of the country.
Most of the children from Chibok headed for the Lagos neighbourhood of Eleko, where some of them now spend their days wandering the unpaved roads, sharing cramped accommodation at night and coping with an irregular supply of water and power. Many others have been forced to abandon their family friends and relatives to seek work within the city.
Daniel Musa, 15, said that for many months after arriving in Lagos he had been forced to sleep on a bench each night, as his guardian shared a room with eight other people.
Only recently had an arrangement been made for him to pass the night in another building, returning to his relative’s place in the morning to wash and dress.
“I have been here for more than a year with no school or permanent job,” he said. “I just sit around doing nothing most of the time. Sometimes I work digging sand for some construction sites where I get N50 to N100 [for food], ” he said.
Daniel Musa
Daniel said he had done his best to blot out the full horror that the insurgency has caused him and his family, but described the attack that sealed his parents’ resolve to take him and his siblings out of danger.
“One day, Boko Haram attacked us around one in the morning. We packed hurriedly and hid ourselves in the bush. All our food and drink was finished. I escaped to another village wearing just a vest and shorts. From there I got a pair of slippers, a shirt and trousers which I wore to travel down to Lagos,” he recalled.
Daniel was forced to stop studying in year six as local schools had closed in the face of constant Boko Haram attacks. Asked about his future aspirations, Daniel said he would like to continue his studies.
“I would like to work in computers,” he said. “The only help I need is for someone to send me back to school.”
Lacking education, some of the Chibok youngsters in Lagos work washing dishes for food sellers, barely making enough to survive.
About 25 per cent of Nigerian children are in employment, according to the International Labour Oganisation, and the figure amongst IDPs is much higher.
Many young women have been forced to make marriages of economic convenience. Others have found work as maids in the city, while the boys loiter around the streets, waiting for the opportunity to get work as an okada, or motorcycle taxi driver. Even then, unregistered, they risk having their bikes seized by police.
The lucky few who manage to continue studying attend a ramshackle school run by some neigbourhood women whose only qualification is a high school diploma.
The neigbourhood’s government-run community school refused to admit the displaced children, citing over-subscription and their inability to waive fees as the reasons.
Ruth Haruna, 12 and Godia Peters, were both sent to live with relatives in Lagos after girls were abducted in Chibok in April 2014.
The girls attend lessons at the school for IDPs and say they are happy. But they would dearly like to return home to their parents in Chibok, and are clearly traumatised by their experiences.
“I came here because of Boko Haram; they were killing people, burning houses and took some of our sisters away. We miss our properties; my daddy’s car was taken away,” said Ruth, who says she would like to become a doctor.
Ruth and Godia Peters
Ibrahim Musa, another 18 year-old from Chibok, was also sent away to avoid being either killed or recruited into the ranks of the Boko Haram fighters.
“Our parents sent us here because we are still young and once Boko Haram see us, they would kidnap us and train us to start killing people. They kidnap girls too; one of my neighbour’s daughters was abducted at school.”
Ibrahim
Mello Kolo is the chairman of the Hausa community, the ethnic group centred in northern Nigeria, in the Eleko neighbourhood. He said the young people from Chibok faced great hardship, and most of the group had been forced to leave their guardians and seek opportunities inside the city.
“More than 30 of these children have gone inside Lagos to look for work. They need help desperately and time is against them. We have been left here on our own with no help from government or any other organization. It is only the Chibok youth association who come here to check on us once in a while. ”
This is the concluding part of a two-part series of report supported with funds from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Abuja through the ACCESS Nigeria project.
The sting of Boko Haram is wearing off at a camp sheltering people displaced by the insurgents in Yola, the Adamawa State capital. Women are finding happiness and fortune by making household items from disused materials. FRANK IKPEFAN reports
The insurgents will probably be shocked and disappointed that women who were lucky to escape their assaults are leading happy lives, making money and sending their children to school. Some internally displaced women trained to make bags, mats and wallets, among other things, from discarded items have been training other women. The women sell their products and use the proceeds to look after their families, including paying their children’s school fees.
Madam Esther Emmanuel, one of the women, learned the skill, in 2012, at a waste-to-wealth programme of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) owned by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. The United Nations funded the programme.
Since 2012, Emmanuel has been working at the Women Development Centre, located in Yola South. The programme, which had 25 women at inception, now boasts 300 women displaced by the insurgency in the Northeast.
She teaches a group of other women how to make money from waste. When not training them, she is making such items as bags from which she makes up to N10, 000 a month. The money, she told our reporter, takes care of the needs of her family.
“Since I came here,” she said, “everything has changed. I make money from this work to take care of my family.”
She said the waste-to-wealth programme of the AUN has become a source of wealth for other IDPs in the state capital. “As the leader of the women, I teach them how to make wallets from nylon. We also make mats and different forms of bags from what other people throw away. Some of us now take care of our families and our children’s school fees through this venture,” she said.
She said she loves what she is doing and that she likes being with people and training them. She is happy when she sees them happy and improving their lives.
“I love coming here every time,” she said. “These women are part of my joy. I am glad I have been able to improve their lives.”
She also works for the local government at the Women’s Development Centre where they teach women other basic skills such as sewing, baking, reading and writing. Her monthly salary is N52,000.
For Madam Cecilia Yohana, another beneficiary of the programme, said things have changed for the better.
Cecilia, who could not read or write before the programme, is now one of the leaders of the groups. The programme has bolstered her confidence to the extent that she now serves as an instructor and can train over 100 people with precision.
She said she makes phone pouches for Madam President (Vice-Chancellor of the institution) when she travels. Empowered with the skills gained from the centre, her enterprise fetches her a minimum of N40, 000 a month, she told the reporter.
”I have been able to learn new things while also improving my reading and writing. I now attend computer classes to learn how to use the computer and I have been able to buy school books for my children. The programme has helped me to become an income earner for my household,” she said.
Coordinator of the programme, Jennifer Che said AUN initiated the programme to train women because of the amount of waste generated in Yola.
“The first thing that impacts us as foreigners when we come to Yola is the waste. They are thrown everywhere. We are not used to that. In Europe you don’t see rubbish on the street, not in this amount. So it is quite shocking”, she said.
Che said further: “We train several women from various NGOs on how to process these nylon bags into objects of art, handbags and purses. You will see various examples. We have a core group of a 100 to 200 ladies that we have trained here from Yola. One hundred of them come regularly and we train every Wednesday at AUN. By now we have both the masters’ trainers that have reached the top level and they actually train the new member.”
Che explained that the project has attracted a grant of about N8.8 million from of Exxon Mobil in two installments.
Care from individuals and private organi-sation has kept internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Abuja going. On Valentine’s Day, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) kept the tradition alive. GRACE OBIKE reports
If internally displaced persons or IDPs in the Kuchigoro camp, Abuja, were to depend on government, they would probably starve. Deputy Chairman of the camp, Alhaji Usman Adamu once accused the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration and Federal Government of visiting the camp only twice in its three years of existence.
“We have been here for almost three years now,” he said, [and] NEMA [National Emergency Management Agency] and FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] only visited us twice since we arrived.”
Private individuals and corporations have been doing better. On Valentine’s Day, Bunmi Cares, an organisation with the hashtag #DontTrashTheRag has clothed over 2000 IDPs at the camp. The group took bags of clothing items, shoes and toys to the makeshift camp which houses over 900 displaced adults and their children.
Coordinator of Bunmi Cares Ademolu Olubunmi told Abuja Review that when the idea of recycling used clothing items for the IDPs came to her, she sent out messages to friends who agreed to help and she took weeks, driving around Abuja to collect the items which where all drycleaned and mended.
“The idea came up when one day I saw those people that dispose of refuse and pick clothes from the bin. I saw one of them pick the clothes that a neighbour thrashed and immediately wore it not minding where he picked it from. It occurred to me that what we consider as rags might go a long way for someone else.
“I feel that since we buy western used clothing, we can also come up with Nigerian used clothing that will be important to take care of the vulnerable ones in our midst.
“We got clothes, bedsheets, shoes and toys for over 2,000 people, children and adults from people who no longer needed them, we tell people that if you change your wardrobe and you are looking for a place to thrash the old clothes, we will pick them up from your house, from our little savings we dryclean and mend them well. For this phase we realised over 1,000 pairs of shoes for children, close to 2,000 for women and men, we realised that it will go a long way to celebrate Valentine.
“We all know that the government is doing its best to provide for the IDPs but we need to support the government as individuals because the government cannot be depended on to do it all on their own.” she said.
Olubunmi also said that the group encourages people not to thrash their rags but to give it to the less fortunate who need it more.
She added, “We tell people that if you have not worn or used an item for over a year, then please give it to people that really need it. We try to send out love by collecting clothes, shoes, toys, food items and share them with the less fortunate, widows, widowers, orphans and hungry children.”
Alhaji Adamu appreciated the gestures of groups and well-meaning Nigerians who provide for them.
He added that the government which should naturally take care of them, does not do so.
He said, “They invited us and told us that the government does not want to see any IDP in Abuja and my people said we are not going anywhere, we are Nigerians that escaped Boko Haram.
“Our survival here is not because of the government, we survive because of individuals and organisations that provide for us. We are praying for the government to do something about our home, we will like to go back home but the situation back home, with bomb blasts in IDP camps is not good, how can we return to a home that is not safe, if peace returns to the Northeast, the government will not have to tell us to go back home, we will return on our own.”
He listed the challenges facing the camp.
“We face a lot of challenges,” he said. “We do not have any hospital to provide us with affordable health care, we don’t have enough water, only one borehole to cater for all of us and we are many, we are over 936 people in this camp.”
Women leader of the camp, Ladi Mathias explained that the camp is faced with a lot of challenges.
She said, “We do not have a hospital, when people fall ill, it is difficult to get them to the hospital, pregnant women also suffer, we have to go all the way to new Kuchigoro to get midwives to assist us in births and it is not easy and going to the hospital itself is not easy because we do not have the money but it would have been worst if not for churches, mosques or islamic organisation, groups and individuals who refuse to see us as a burden but are constantly ready to help us however little. Without their help it would have been terrible since we do not have jobs or a means to provide for ourselves.”
An additional 4,500 displaced persons have been evacuated from public schools in Borno to pave way for smooth resumption of schools in the state.
The State’s Relocation Committee (SREC) has already evacuated 4, 506 displaced persons to Bakassi camp in the Maiduguri metropolis.
The Nation gathered that over 600 IDPS at Government Girls Secondary School, Yerwa, in Maiduguri metropolis have been evacuated to Dalori camps and reunited with their families.
The ongoing exercise is in line with the state government resolve to reopen all public schools that were closed down and converted as IDP camps due to the Boko Haram insurgency.
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Friday commended Nigerians in the North-East for their good neighborliness and accommodating internally displaced victims of the insurgency in their own homes and communities.
He gave the commendation during a meeting with a delegation from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, (UNHCR), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Osinbajo, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, noted that even though the insurgents still create a sense of fear, many Nigerians were still doing their bit to accommodate the IDPs.
He said on its part the federal government is also committed to many of the initiatives put in place to address the situation of the North-East region of the country.
Despite the economic challenges currently in the country, he said that the Buhari administration is determined to restore the infrastructure, de-mine farmlands and make the affected communities safe and habitable again.
Some of the initiatives in place, he said, included the Safe Schools Initiative, Victims Support Fund (VSF), Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE), among others.
Those initiatives are now structured under the Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiatives, PCNI, for which President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed General T.Y. Danjuma (rtd) to lead.
According to the Vice President, the federal government is deeply committed to the recovery and rehabilitation of the North-Eastern region and will require the continued support of the United Nations (UN) in the effort.
The Vice President also commended the UN agency for its assistance so far.
“We are looking forward to much more assistance from the UNHCR,” Prof. Osinbajo told the team led by Mr. Volker Turk, the Assistant High Commissioner.
While acknowledging that the agency has already done a lot, he said that there is still a long way to go.
He noted that the UNHCR is “peculiarly equipped to deal with this kind of situation.”
“We urge the UNHCR to work with us as closely as possible on the resettlement and rehabilitation of IDPs,” the VP said.
In his remarks, Mr. Turk while offering the government the continued collaboration of the UN agency said that it is the aim of the UNHCR to support and assist the Nigerian government on how to create the space for IDPs’ return to their communities with safety, dignity and sustainability.
The Vice President also received a delegation from the Nigerian Association of Nephrologists led by its president, Prof. B.L Salako.
The association requested that the federal government should assist in the provision of drugs for victims of kidney disease and also work with the group to standardize dialysis treatment and kidney transplants in the country.
The Vice President responded stating the importance of nephrology in medical practice and expressed government’s readiness to explore options on how to make the drugs readily available.
He lamented that there are people who even don’t know they need dialysis, while many others die because they could not afford the treatment.
The Vice President said that the Buhari administration will work with the association to address the situation.
Borno State Government has commenced the evacuation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from schools to permanent resettlement camps across Maiduguri, the state capital.
The decision followed the state government’s plans to open public schools in the metropolis which have been closed for nearly two years.
The government on Wednesday finally relocated over 600 displaced persons at Government Girls’ Secondary School, Yerwa, to the Dalori Resettlement camp.
The relocation of displaced persons, according to the state Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Musa Inuwa Kubo, had been postponed at least four times previously before the government decided it can no longer wait on the relocation of the IDPs.
“We thank God, it is a reality to reopen our schools that were closed down for over a year now. We are conveying this morning 602 IDPs to Dalori camp with their families. We have assured the people that the government will take care of the basic needs of the displaced persons,” the commissioner stated.
