Ndume moves to evacuate Borno IDPs from Lagos, others

Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, says plans are underway to “relocate and return” the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Gwoza, Borno State scattered across the country to their liberated communities.

Addressing reporters yesterday in Maiduguri on the move to close IDPs’ camps and repatriate the inmates, the Borno North representative said the affected people are visible in Maiduguri, Abuja and Lagos.

He noted that the IDPs would be evacuated to transit camps in Gwoza Local Council pending when they would return to their respective homes.

“I am a serious advocate of dismantling the IDPs’ camps and am working on that. We plan to create transit camps in various localities to move our IDPs,” Ndume said.

He noted that keeping the inmates longer in camps was counter-productive as they could resort to drug addiction, prostitution and other societal vices.

“In the history of IDPs worldwide, once you insist on keeping the camps, then you are creating a permanent den for criminality and laziness. The IDPs have been there for three years,” he added.

The senator confirmed that he had held talks with the IDPs in Lagos and Abuja on their relocation.

“We are moving all IDPs from the FCT to Gwoza. They have agreed to go back to the transit camps in Gwoza and Pulka. So, from there people can go see their destroyed houses and try to fix them,” he said.

“I met with 29 various groups in the IDPs’ camps in FCT and I am going to Lagos to tell them we are closing the camps. The people have agreed that once government gives them a little support, they will return home.”