The Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Emmanuel Shior has appealed to the Federal Government to do everything possible to allow the displaced persons in the state to return to their ancestral homes.
This, according to the SEMA boss would avoid some of the agile youths in the various camps across the state be susceptible to being recruited into crime by unsuspecting terrorists.
Shior made the appeal when he distributed food items to displaced persons in various camps across the state.
According to him, over 1.5 million people were still languishing in the eight designated and other camps scattered across the state.
The SEMA boss described the humanitarian crisis in the state caused by frequent attacks on Benue communities by marauding herders as colossal and devastating.
He expressed dissatisfaction with the state to the kid-glove the federal government was handling humanitarian crisis in the state.
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Shior explained, ”the IDPs have been with us for the past three years and there is a need to return them to their communities but some people for their parochial reasons are accusing Governor Ortom of being behind the killing which is not true. We don’t play politics with lives.
”The humanitarian crisis of IDPs is a big burden for the state. We spend hundreds of millions of naira every month to procure food items and other needs.
“Federal government has not shown enough care and I am not playing politics about this, as we all known, the displaced persons are increasing by the day, we have over 1.5 million people in the eight camps the state officially open and several camps are scattered in Naka, Agatu, Gbanjimba and host of others.
“In Kwande, there are over 2,000 refugees from Cameroon.”
The SEMA boss said that the food items were distributed to IDPs in various camps which include; Abagana, Udei, Gbajimba, Ortese, Anyiin, Naka town, Agagbe, Aondoana as well as Tse-Yandev.
Tribune