NEDC to construct 500 housing units, schools for IDPs

The North East Development Commission (NEDC) says it will construct 500 housing units for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and mega schools across the three senatorial districts of Yobe State.

Speaking shortly before laying the foundation of the Gashua Mega School in Bade Local Government in Yobe State, the NEDC Managing Director, Mohammed Alkali, said the projects were parts of the commission’s initiative to rehabilitate and reconstruct houses, schools and commercial premises destroyed by insurgents in the region.

Alkali noted that the destruction of schools had resulted in the truncation of the education of primary and secondary school students.

Apart from the insurgency, he said, widespread poverty coupled with insecurity had made an estimated 600,000 young people to abandon school.

“As such, millions of the out of school children in the region remain uneducated, justifying the need for massive intervention in the development of school infrastructure,” he added.

Senate President Ahmed Lawan represented by Senator Yusuf A. Yusuf, who is the Chairman house committee on special duties, assured that the legislature would continue to work in synergy with the executive arm to support bills aimed at alleviating the sufferings of people in the region.

He said the project would be strictly supervised to ensure specification and quality works were delivered.

Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni represented by his Chief of Staff, Abdullahi Gashua, said the project would complement the effort of the state government in its insurgency recovery drive.