FG flags off resettlement homes for Benue IDPs

The federal government has flagged off the construction of clusters of resettlement homes for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Benue State.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, who performed the foundation laying ceremony on Thursday at the Mbagwen community in Makurdi LGA, expressed the government’s commitment to give the IDPs a befitting life.

Dr Edu said that President Bola Tinubu was quite concerned about the plight of the people who had been displaced from their ancestral homes and wanted to resettle them in dignity rather than leave them in shanties.

She said, “To all those who have come all the way from the IDP camps to witness this event, this is the beginning of the journey for your return to your ancestral homes.

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“President Tinubu has an eight-point agenda. The first is called food security, and the people of Benue State are key to him in achieving that food security.

“You cannot reduce a food basket to hunger. President Tinubu says no. You cannot reduce the hope of a nation, the food basket of the nation, the food security stronghold of Nigeria, to pain and anguish. It is unacceptable, and today is the beginning of that solution.”

Edu explained that the houses would be built in clusters through direct labour, stressing that the locals in every community would be used during the project which she assured would be completed within six months.

Governor Hyacinth Alia on his part, said the security situation in the state went beyond herders’ attacks to banditry and kidnapping, noting that there was already ongoing underground security work which was why the state currently enjoyed relative peace.