US Group Decries Alleged FG Neglect Of Benue IDPs

Mission Africa Internation, a United States-based non-profit organization, Tuesday, called on the federal government to address the humanitarian needs of the internally displaced persons in Benue State.

The president of the organization, Pastor Oluwasayo Ajiboye, made the call when he visited Governor Samuel Ortom in Makurdi after visiting some of the IDP camps.

Pastor Ajiboye decried the conditions in which the IDPs were living at the camps, especially children, with little or no assistance from the federal government. He remarked that the inmates need good shelter, food, medical services and other necessities.

He said it was against humanity for the federal government to abandon the IDPs in Benue while at the same time spending billions of naira to take care of those in Borno and other parts of Northern Nigeria.

Pastor Ajiboye said his organization would intervene in the area of providing quality education to the children. He appealed to organisations to redouble their efforts in assisting the IDPs.

He commended Governor Samuel Ortom for consistently reaching out to the global community with the right information about what was happening in Benue.

In his remarks, Governor Ortom said since 2016 when the internally
displaced persons started living at the camps, the federal government had done little to assist them as it was doing to states in the core North.

Governor Ortom appealed to the government through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management and the National Emergency Management Agency to do more in providing for the IDPs who he said were going through difficult times.

He also called on security agencies to disarm the Fulani herdsmen who he said were carrying sophisticated weapons and attacking communities around the country.