By Najib Sani Bauchi
Th e federal government has commenced the distribution of 20, 000 metric tonnes of food items to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Bauchi state to ameliorate their suff erings. Minister of State for National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this on Monday when she and the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) paid a courtesy visit to Governor Mohammed Abubakar at the Government House, Bauchi. She informed the governor that they were at the state to fl ag off the distribution of the food items.
Ahmed stated that 32 trucks of the food items which had already been brought to the state would be shared among the IDPs in the 20 local government areas of the state. According to her, no fewer than 54, 000 IDPs, identifi ed in various communities, would benefi t from the gesture.
She added that the distribution would continue on quarterly basis under the federal government’s Food Intervention Programme for the North-east. “Th e exercise would be carried out by offi cials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) who are already in the state,” she said. Responding, Governor Abubakar identifi ed poverty and illiteracy as the root causes of insurgency in the Northeast.
He opined that for the war against insurgency to be totally won, poverty and illiteracy must be well addressed in the region. Abubakar revealed that there were no permanent camps for the IDPs in the state as all of them had been absorbed into the various communities across the state.
