FCT IDPs reject Borno camp

Two hundred out of the one thousand five hundred Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) squatting in Durumi, Garki in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have agreed to go back to Borno State but have rejected the idea of moving into a government run IDPs camp in Maiduguri.
Speaking to newsmen over the weekend in the Durumi, National Human Rights Commission officials responsible for profiling the IDPs said most of them insist that they want to go back to their homes rather than remain in camps built for them in the state’s capital.
According to the officials, the IDPs prefer to go back to fend for themselves rather than keep surviving on charity.
President of the IDPs from the Gwoza community, Chakule Lawan said he and the inter-agency committee travelled to Maiduguri to visit the camp “but the camp is not good enough for us to relocate to.
“Let me tell you, the camp is not safe. I thank the National Human Rights Commission for their support to us and other well-meaning Nigerians who have been supporting us but we are not going back to Borno camp. We have called our brothers and sisters who are there but they told us the place is not safe and conducive.
“I personally visited the camp courtesy of NHRC to ascertain the situation at the camp but we were not satisfied with what we saw, we were hiding for the few days we spent there. We can only return to Gwoza that is our local government, not Maiduguri that is very far from Gwoza,” he said.
He insisted that when they get to their local community, it would be better for them because they would go back to their farms and do other businesses to fend for themselves rather than go to the camp in Maiduguri which he said was not habitable.
On profiling of the IDPs to ascertain whoever was authentic or fake, Lawan said that there was no fake person amongst the people in his camp, adding that the federal government was not being sincere about the whole exercise.
The inter-agency committee for the resettlement of the IDPs in Nigeria had several weeks ago said that the federal government had provided a safe and conducive camp for the relocation of the IDPs and confirmed that the IDPs had accepted the offer to relocate.
 “The settlement and the condition under which these Nigerians live violates our collective right as humanity, 21 women had given birth through the assistance of traditional birth attendant due to lack of hospital or clinic,” Professor Bem Angwe, Executive Secretary of NHRC stressed.