NEWS Borno IDPs in Abuja head for Maiduguri
About 500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Borno State who are currently taking refuge in Abuja are soon to be returned home, the Director General, FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Alhaji Abbas Idriss, said yesterday.
He told newsmen in Maiduguri when he visited some IDP camps that FEMA was working on plans to take the IDPs home.
“You are quite aware that about 500 IDPs had indicated interest in coming back home, they are all from Borno, mostly from Gwoza LGA.
“Based on this, government felt that we should come to the state and inspect the facilities available here so we can move them back home in the nearest future,” he said.
Idriss said the relocation would commence in a few days, adding that the IDPs were currently occupying an estate owned by a developer who wants to take over his property and gave them a quit notice.
“They felt bad and staged a demonstration at the National Human Rights Commission which intervened and called stakeholders to a meeting which led to the formation of the our committee that is inter agency in nature,” he said.
He said the inter-agency committee was set up to ensure the protection of rights of the displaced persons.
“Part of the resolution of the committee is to maintain the dignity of the IDPs while moving them. That is why we took some of their leaders down here to inspect facilities available in the camps and if they are okay they can indicate and affirm their interest to come back home,” he said.
He said government, through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), would work out modalities for their return, adding that the committee was impressed with facilities in the Maiduguri camps.
A leader of the IDPs in Abuja, Mr Chakule Lawan who accompanied the committee members to Maiduguri, expressed readiness to convince them to return home, saying he was happy with the facilities on ground. Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir El-Rufai yesterday said he was misrepresented on comments he made during the interactive segment at a Town Hall meeting with stakeholders on Saturday.
El-Rufai said in a statement through his media assistant, Samuel Aruwan, that he did not ask anyone to die over appointments, adding that he was only being emphatic about the need for frank talk when he said those not comfortable with the truth could climb the Kufena Hills and jump.
The governor added