1,000 Borno IDPs in Ibadan long for home

Over 1,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) currently taking refuge in Ibadan, Oyo State capital have indicated their desire to voluntarily return to their respective home local government areas in Borno State to start a new life following the dislodgement of the terrorist Boko Haram insurgents in the North East.

The IDPs comprising Muslim and Christian youths, women and children staged a peaceful rally at Ring Road area of Ibadan over the weekend where they bared their minds on the various challenges they had been contending with as ‘refugees’ since the past three years.

Speaking though their Chairman and Secretary, Mr. Philemon Obadiah Aga and Mallam Amada Usman respectively, the IDPs told journalists that although Oyo State had been a good and hospitable host state, majority of them had found it extremely difficult to secure gainful employment and life was increasingly becoming difficult for them.

“Consequently, we are having feeding and healthcare challenges coupled with malnutrition while our children cannot be enrolled in schools,” the spokesmen lamented.

Aside these, they said they had been battling on daily basis with accommodation problem as over 10 people lived in one room, mostly in uncompleted buildings where security operatives incessantly swooped on them and made indiscriminate arrests.

While praising President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for ‘wiping out’ the Boko Haram terrorists from the North East, particularly the Southern Borno Senatorial District where majority of them hail from, they pleaded with the federal government as well as Oyo and Borno state governments to assist in providing logistics for their evacuation back home as soon as possible.

“We have resolved to go back home and begin our lives anew without further delay,” they said.