Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in a camp in Abuja have asked the federal government to end the security challenges in the North East and relocate them to their various communities.
Women leader of the Area 1, Durumi IDP Camp, Leatu Ayuba, from Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State and many other IDPs made the appeal in an interview with Daily Trust on Friday when Senate President Godswill Akpabio distributed palliatives to them on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Akpabio, who was represented by his Senior Assistant on Women and Gender Matters, Dr. Uzoamaka Amah-Mbah, and Senior Assistant on Special Duties, Engr. Ikechukwu, donated bags of rice, sugar, salt, corn, cartons of spaghetti, indomie, soap, milk, and many other items to women in the camp who came out en mass to receive the palliatives.
Ayuba said, “The senate president has demonstrated that he knows our pains as IDPs. We are grateful to him. We have been in the IDP camp for 9-10 years now. But we want to go back because of the suffering. Every day, no food, no this, no that. We are tired. We want to go back to our villages and work for our good, but it’s because of the Boko Haram issue.
“The killing has not stopped. They are still killing people there. They killed my husband in active service that time. This is heat period but as you can see, no ventilation here, no money to pay my children school fees, no food. We are suffering; there are challenges on a daily basis, no food.
“Every child in this camp, I delivered them because we have no access to hospital here. It is not only this women leader work that I am doing, but I get nothing for all those services.
“So, I am appealing to the federal government to find a way to end the Boko Haram insurgency, so that we can go back. We will live a better life when we are back home. I don’t want this IDP camp thing again. The government should do something about us. We deserve a better life.”
Similarly, Aishatu Aliyu, also from Borno State, in an interview said, “We thank him (Akpabio) for the relief materials. This palliative will go along way in reducing our pains.
“But my message to the federal government is that we want to go back home. We are suffering here. We can’t continue being in another land when we have ours. Government should help us to end insecurity in our state so that we can go back.”
Earlier, Akpabio’s aide, Amah-Mbah, said, “We will continue to fight for the empowerment of women. We will strive for a more inclusive Nigeria that will ensure equal opportunities for women. Let us continue to fight to dismantle every hurdle, viscous abuse and dehumanisation of women and girls.”
