90% of schools in Benue LG in ruins –Council chair

At least 90 percent of schools in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State are in a state of disrepair due to repeated attacks by invaders.

Recall that many residents of the rural communities were forced to flee to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps during violence.

A large number of the displaced have recently returned to their homes but, the education infrastructure remains in shambles.

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Speaking to journalists in Makurdi, the state capital, on Wednesday, Maurice Orwough, Chairman of Guma LGA and the Benue State ALGON chairman, lamented the scale of destruction, he disclosing that when he assumed office three months ago, only five schools were still functional across the entire council area.

Orwough said, “Almost 90 percent of schools in Guma LGA were destroyed. I doubt if up to five schools are now standing in the whole of Guma LGA. It’s the same with hospitals in this area. So we want federal government to help build back these infrastructures.”

He said the strategies however evolved by Governor Hyacinth Alia’s administration had in no small measures brought about peace in the area, such that most of the displaced people have returned to their ancestral homes.

The ALGON chairman however expressed worried that the returnees have no nowhere to lay their heads because their houses had either been burnt or destroyed.

“We call on the federal government to do something for us in Guma – in the area of building shelters, destroyed schools and hospitals. Our people are back to their villages through the efforts of Governor Alia but there are no shelters for them to live in,” he said.

Orwough also called for intervention from good spirited individuals, non-governmental organisations and corporate organisations to assist the government in making life worth living for the displaced people in Guma and across other affected LGAs of the state.