Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has redeemed his recent pledge by donating assorted relief items to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at the Karmajiji Camp in Abuja.
Dogara, who on June 2, 2018, in collaboration with some nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), took a medical outreach to the camp, pledged the items.
Items donated were 50 bags of rice, 50 cartons of cooking oil, 100 cartons of Indomie noodles, and 50 bags of beans.
Other items were 30 cartons of kuskus, 50 cartons of soap, 30 bags of sugar and 30 packs of sanitary pads.
Earlier, on his visit to the camp, the Speaker lamented that the continued stay of IDPs, who were mostly victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast in camps “is turning out to be a long stay.
Dogara added that it was challenging on the best way to approach the matter, as to “whether this act of intervention on the part of the NGOs and faith-based organisations will be enough, or whether government should look for other means by which we can integrate the IDPs themselves, as against rushing them back to their communities where they could be displaced again.” He said: “It is the task that we all must set our minds to accomplish.
We need to integrate them if we cannot send them back to their communities in the nearest possible time.
That effort must be made by government, not even NGOs, NGOs can support and faith-based organisations can also support, but the government must stand up and be counted.”