Over 2.5million IDPs to celebrate Yuletide in 12 camps of Benue – SEMA
AREWA AGENDA – Over 2.5million Benue Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), will celebrate Christmas and New Year in camps.
The Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr. Emmanuel Shior who addressed Journalist in the State referred the incident to the failure of the Federal Government to assist them return the IDPs to their ancestral homes.
There are over 3million Internally Displaced Persons spread in 12 camps across Benue State, following suspected herdsmen attacks on farming communities since 2018. He said
Addressing journalists during the monthly distribution of relief materials to IDPs by the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), the SEMA Executive Secretary, Dr. Emmanuel Shior, who represented Governor Samuel Ortom, said all efforts by the governor to get Federal Government’s intervention to enable IDPs in the state return to their ancestral homes fell on deaf ears.
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Dr. Shior said rather than the attacks to abate, they are increasing because the dry season has set in and herdsmen are looking for green grass to feed their cows.
“We want the Federal Government who has the responsibility of protecting lives and property to provide security for the numerous IDPs to go back to their homes and spend the yuletide with their families,” the SEMA boss said.
“It is unfortunate that the Federal Government has neglected IDPs in Benue State, to the extent that not even food items are provided to them as they keep dying of hunger on daily basis,” he stated further.
Shior commended Gov. Ortom, who has over the years provided food and shelter for the millions of IDPs in Benue and appealed to the next administration to meet the challenge of the Benue IDPs by returning them to their ancestral homes.
In the month of December alone, SEMA has distributed 5,000 bags of rice, 4,000 cartons of noodles, and other food and non-food items like plates, mosquito nets, sleeping mats and blankets.
Credit: The Nation
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