Banditry: Minister pleads with Nigerians to help Niger IDPs

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, Thursday said the condition of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Niger state is pathetic.

Consequently, she appealed to private organisations and Nigerians in general to assist them with relief materials to cushion the effect of the hash condition they suddeny find themselves after being displaced from their ancestral homes.

While distributing 600 bags of rice, 200 kegs of palm oil and other relief materials to the IDPs camp in Central Primary School Gwada, Shiroro local government of Niger state, she said, “We are appealing to Nigerians of goodwill to also assist the state government. The state government is going through a serious humanitarian crisis, they need the assistance and support from what we have seen. So we beg Nigerians of goodwill to come to the aid of the state and compliment what the ministry has done.”

Represented by the acting director, Disaster Management Department, Dr. Abubakar Suleiman, the minister sympathised with the victims who have left all livelihood to the misery of living in IDP camps.

While commending the minister for the quick intervention in the supply of relief materials, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Alhaji Ibrahim Matane, stated that more people have been trooping to IDP camps after been displaced by bandits.

He said more IDPs camps have come up in Kontagora area of the state following recent attacks in Mariga, Shadadi Bangi and other areas of zone C, adding that the state needs support from the federal government.

He said: “Certainly, this is not the best of times for us in terms of security. From Minna alone last four days, we moved over 3,500 displaced persons to Gwada. There are some IDPs that have been here for over one year and they are in large numbers. We have seen the dislocation of so many communities and unfortunately this is not what we anticipated. However, we have to respond to it by doing our best to provide comfort to the IDPs and confront the situation.”

Leave a Reply