By Aishah Saleeman
Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, who’s been on a trip to Monguno since Thursday, supervised the distribution of N275m alongside bags of food, and textiles to 90,000 households that are internally displaced.
Zulum in a statement by his media aide, Isa Gusau, has in the last three years sustained multi-faceted efforts to increase the resilience of communities affected by Boko Haram attacks, supporting them with means of livelihood as they gradually transit into farming, micro, small, and medium scale businesses in order to eventually cater for themselves.
He said the cash support has also been an effective tool in fighting Boko Haram’s ability to recruit spies from extremely poor and vulnerable communities, by offering some residents as low as N5,000 as financial incentives.
Zulum, alongside the Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Barr. Mohammed Tahir Monguno, travelled by road from Maiduguri on Thursday, passed the night in Mafa, his hometown, and arrived Monguno on Friday morning to commence humanitarian activities.
Monguno has been host to internally displaced persons from about five Local Government Areas on the fringes of Lake Chad, as well as refugees who returned from the Niger Republic after fleeing from Boko Haram’s attacks between 2013 and 2014.
He said, “After interacting with the IDPs and returned refugees in Monguno, Governor Zulum, on Friday, supervised the distribution of wrapper, sugar and N5,000 each to 55,000 women, making a total of N275m.
“After dealing with women throughout the day, Zulum began midnight supervision on Saturday, to reach 35,000 male heads of households who had lined up in anxious anticipation. Each of the men was provided two big bags of rice and maize grits.”
The governor also visited the general hospital to monitor healthcare services by medical personnel.
