Borno IDPs Protest Against Closure Of Camps

Internally Displaced Persons in teachers village camp on Friday staged a protest against the Borno State government’s decision to close the camp without any proper alternative accommodation for them either in their ancestral homes or elsewhere. They also alleged unfair distribution of parting palliative provided to them by the government.

Some of the protesting IDPs accused the state government of favoritism in the donation of cash to them.

It was gathered that the protest was ignited by an announcement by officials handling the payment that the ration to be received on day-two would be half of what others got the previous day.

“They came to tell us that we will not get what others got previously, and we felt that was not fair. How can they treat us differently, when Bakassi Camp was closed at the end of November, 2021, each male and female IDP who head their households got N100,000 while house wives received N50,000 each and some huge packages of rice, maize and related condiments,” Zara Usman, an IDP from Guzamala disclosed.

However, Yagana yerima, a 30 years old mother of five children said she does not have anywhere to go to even if she is given the fifty thousand naira as her village has yet to be rebuilt and her husband is still nowhere to be found seven years after he was arrested and detained by the military in connection with Boko Haram insurgency.

“I was arrested along with my husband by the military and taken to Giwa barracks from pulka in Gwoza LGA some seven years ago.

“When I was released, I didn’t have anywhere to go as such I went the IDP camp. I have been living in the camp without any means of livelihood or source of income, I survive by the handouts being given to us by humanitarian agencies. Now the Government is saying we should leave the camp to our villages but our house has not been rebuilt and there is no security in our village,” Yagana yerima lamented.

Borno State government had vowed to relocate all IDPs in a dignified manner as such, it continued the resettlement in November after initially closing down Moccolis and NYSC camps in may and June this year and then by resettling IDPs in Bakassi camps.

Earlier, the state Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum had visited the teachers’ village camp and took inventory of all the IDPs with a view to providing departing palliatives and cash donations.