North-East youth leader calls for resettlement of IDPs

The federal government has been urged to commence comprehensive resettlement of internally displaced people currently staying in various camps to their ancestral homes.

This was contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, by Mohammed Hassan Abuja, President, North-East Youth Forum.

Mohammed said the IDPs cannot continue to remain in the camps as they are experiencing untold hardship.

“The situation in the various camps is very deplorable and appalling. The IDPs are being treated like beggars. It is better they return to their various homelands,” he added.

The youth leader said members of the forum had visited the various camps a couple of times where they donated money, food items and other relief materials.

“Of course, this is not enough as we are not rich enough to give as much as we desire,” he said.

He also expressed worry with the way relief materials donated by both the government and foreign donors are being handled.

“Despite the huge quantity of relief materials we see being donated by well meaning Nigerians, government and foreign groups, the actual beneficiaries still find it difficult to access them, hence the ravaging malnutrition in the camps,” he said.

Mohammed also questioned the wisdom “in focusing more attention and storage of facilities in Maiduguri when Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe and Bauchi states are suffering the same fate,” and called for monitoring of the donated funds and relief materials for equitable distribution.

He commended the security agencies, especially the Army and the Air Force for their efforts in tackling the crisis, while appealing to them to do more to finish the war.

The North-East Youth Forum also called on the executive and legislative arms of government to hasten work on the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), saying the nonpassage of the bill was counter-productive to the envisaged rehabilitation, resettlement and restoration of areas hit by attacks.