The Federal Government inter-ministerial committee has commenced the assessment of territories destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents during their siege on some states. The worst-affected areas are Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
According to government officials, the assessment will inform the government on action to be taken to rehabilitate and reconstruct the affected territories and to allow for the return of the fleeing inhabitants.
Speaking during a visit to the deputy governor of Borno State, Alhaji Zannah Mustapha, the head of the Federal Government inter ministerial committee on the assessment which comprises staff of the Federal ministries of health, education and works, the Red Cross and other non-governmental organisations, the Director, Search and Rescue of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Air Commodore Charles Otegbade said the assessment was important to inform government decision.
“We are here to assess the level of destructions created by the insurgents and recommend to the Federal Government, so that the needed funds will be provided” Otegbade said.
Otegbade added that the entourage was also in the state to deliver the monthly relief materials from NEMA to the IDPs in the state. He also appealed to the Borno state Government to assist them in the assessment assignment, so as to furnish the Federal government with the actual level of destruction to enable the state access the Victims Support Fund.
“Over 80 percent of the Borno communities are living in Maiduguri hence, the need for NEMA to continue supporting the Borno state Government, as a chunk of the Federal allocation to the state was spent on maintaining the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),” Otegbade said.
Mustapha said people from 22 local government areas were displaced by the insurgents in the state. He added that over 1 million IDPs are living in Maiduguri, the state capital alone.
Mustapha said although the military had liberated 97 percent of the communities taken over by insurgents in Borno, it would take time for the government to fumigate and diffuse the landmines before the fleeing inhabitants can be relocated back to their various communities. He appealed to the Federal Government and NEMA to take over the feeding of the IDPs.
Credit: CAJ News
