The Presidential Logistics Committee on Distribution of relief items to Internally Displaced Persons have arrived Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
The Committee, chaired by the Assistant Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs and Excise Authority, Sanusi Umar said that it has already visited IDPs in Adamawa, Yobe and Edo states.
The committee came bearing 50 truckloads of food and none food items offloaded in the Bakassi makeshift camp, home to 17,000 displaced people from Monguno and Gwoza local governments of Borno State.
The beneficiaries, recently evacuated from a public school to the Bakassi camp had protested their continued stay in makeshift camps in Maiduguri.
Indeed, life is not easy in the camp as the IDPS are not only dealing with food shortage but the harsh weather as well.
“We have been feeding on the same kind of our local food twice daily unless we are lucky to have rice. The changing weather has also made many of us sick, and we do not have health facilities. We appreciate all that’s been done for us but we still plead with the government to help us and do more. ” one of the IDPs said.
According to the IDPs, reports reaching the displaced about military operations in their hometown is cheering, as they await government’s nod for them to return to the only place that is truly home to them.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai has continued to offer hope to victims of insurgency assuring them of the Nigerian Army’s commitment to cracking down the insurgents and have people return to their homes.
Governor Kashim Shettima, while speaking about how much the humanitarian crisis has overwhelmed Borno State, said that the committee’s donation is the biggest so far.
IDPS in Adamawa, Edo and Yobe states have already benefitted from the federal government initiative, according to the ACG.
Government has also explained that the choice of the Customs and Excise boss as Chairman of the Presidential Logistic Committee is a deliberate plan to channel all seizures made by the agency to the Internally Displaced.
The committee also consists of officials from various security agencies as well as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Commission (NAFDAC).