At least 358 Borno State residents who fled from their various homes in the north east due to the increasing Boko Haram attacks were, yesterday, located at Sabon Kuchingoro, one of the suburbs in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The Director of the agency, Alhaji Abbas G. Idriss, who spoke in a telephone chat with Newswatch correspondent shortly after the conduct of an enumeration exercise to determine the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the area, said they composed of men, women and children.
“The FCT Emergency Management Agency has identified an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp at Sabon Kuchingoro, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, and immediately swung into action by conducting an enumeration exercise yesterday. In the camp, we have 192 male, 116 female and 50 children, making a total of 358 IDPs,” Idriss said.
According to the director, “the camp is a makeshift structure and consists mainly of indigenes of Borno State who have had to flee their homes due to insurgency in the North-East.”
Idriss disclosed that some of the inmates, who spoke to FEMA officials, gave various harrowing stories of how they were able to escape the war zone and make their way to the FCT.
He said the exercise was conducted in order to ascertain the number of those involved and to be able to make appropriate plan for them.
“Now that statistics have been gotten, we have started making arrangements for relief materials. We have also contacted our stakeholders in the Health and Human Secretariat and also the Water Board to provide health and water facilities for these IDPs,” he said.
Asked if the agency plans to relocate the people, Idriss said: “No, we don’t because since they domicile there and they are used to the environment. What we will only do is to improve their condition of living in that place. Apart from donation of relief materials, our social welfare officers will also be working with them to alleviate their trauma and we work with them so that they can be reintegrated back into the society.”
On if their stay at Sabon Kuchingoro would not pose a threat to the indigenes and other residents of the area, the director of the agency said FEMA would be working with the security agencies to ensure protection of lives and property.
“We will be working with the security agencies and leave that aspect for them,” he said.
Idriss, who said that the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, is concerned about disaster management and IDPs, also stressed that the agency would ensure that basic necessities are provided for the people in order to ameliorate their plights.
When contacted on telephone, the Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) of Abuja Operations, Mr. Ishaya Chonoko, said the agency was aware and has also conducted on-the-spot assessment to identify their various needs.
“These people came one after another from Borno State. I have already forwarded a request on their behalf for relief materials. We want to see how we can give them support,” he told DailyNewswatch correspondent.
Asked on the period these people have stayed in the area before they were discovered, Chonoko said he had no idea.
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