The Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative (PCNI) in partnership with Victims Support Fund (VSF) donated medical equipment and building materials worth over N2 billion to Borno State Government.
PCNI’s Head of Media and Communications, Malam Alkasim Abdulkadir, made the disclosure in a statement issued on Sunday in Maiduguri.
Abdulkadir said the items were handed over to Gov. Kashim Shettima by the PCNI’s Vice Chairman, Alhaji Tijjani Tumsa, on Friday in Maiduguri.
Tumsa was quoted as saying that the gesture was to support reconstruction and rehabilitation of communities destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents as well as enhance healthcare service delivery in the state.
He disclosed that PCNI had initiated a Housing Refurbishing Material Support Programme designed to provide house accommodation to returnees and persons displaced by the insurgency.
Tumsa listed the items to include 298,000 pieces of timber; 59,710 ceiling boards; 20,865 bags of assorted nails; 14, 100 bundles of roofing sheets and 2,400 bags of cement.
He said that the items were provided to fast track ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation works in nine selected local government areas of the state.
The PCNI official disclosed that the items were allocated to the benefiting local government councils’ based on population size and damage assessment.
Giving break down of the distributable items, Tumsa said that Biu, Gwoza and Monguno local government councils were allocated 50, 000 pieces of timber; 2, 275 bundles of roofing sheets, 2, 650 ceiling boards and 350 bags of cement each, respectively.
Some 48,000 pieces of wood; 2, 275 bundles of zinc; 2, 650 ceiling boards and 350 bags of cement were provided to Damboa.
While Guzamala, Kala-Balge, Kukawa, Mafa and Ngala received 20, 000 pieces of timber; 1, 000 bundles of roofing sheets; 2, 053 bags of nails; 5, 670 pieces of ceiling boards and 200 bags of cement each, respectively.
Tumsa explained that the medical facilities were also supplied to furnish the General Hospital, Bama, adding that the items include X-ray machines and 240 adult beds, among others.
“Rebuilding of hospital infrastructure is meant to complement our short-term interventions such as the medical outreach being conducted in northeast region,” he said
According to him, the committee had expended over N6 billion on various interventions including reconstruction, education, healthcare service and peace building process in the six states of the region.
Also, Shettima, lauded the PCNI over the gesture, noting that the interventions would go a long way to fast-track ongoing reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced persons.
Shettima reiterated government’s commitment to the resettlement of the displaced persons in May.
“My administration is determined to see that by May 29, we have resettled all displaced persons to their communities’’.
He called on the committee to expand the scope of the intervention programme to fast track reconstruction projects at Askira-Uba, Chibok, Konduga and Marte local government areas. (NAN)