Borno state Government has said that Thursday’s protest by Internally Displaced People in Maiduguri was as a result of the breakdown of a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) it signed with the National Emergency Management Agency( NEMA) for the supply of food to the IDPs in the state.
According to the Commissioner for Local Government and Emirate Affairs, Alhaji Usman Zannah who was addressing the caretaker chairmen at the state secretariat on Friday said: “Thursday’s protests of IDPs over poor feeding, was caused by inadequate supply of food items from National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). In the last three months, NEMA has failed to live up to its expectation of providing food items to IDPs in Borno, despite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which stipulated that the state government provides condiments, while NEMA provides food items to IDPs,” he said.
The commissioner also ordered council chairmen to relocate and open offices at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Maiduguri the state capital, along with their Divisional Police Officers (DPO) to ensure security and adequate food supply for over 1.5 million displaced persons.
This follows Thursday protest by hundreds IDPs from Marte Local Government Area who took to the streets of Maiduguri alleging shortage supply of food and water which did not auger well for the state government.
In his wisdom, he advised the Caretaker Chairmen of Marte, Mafa, Dikwa, Bama, Mobbar, Abadam, Monguno, Gwoza council areas on the need to relocate the displaced persons in Maiduguri camps to liberated communities, while those inaccessible council areas like Abadam, Mobbar, Gwoza and Marte should ensure that they have their offices at camps in Maiduguri so as to address issues of hunger and food shortages.
