Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has ordered the immediate closure of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Bama, the largest displacement facility outside the state capital, Maiduguri, while also hinting that the Gwoza camp would follow suit.

Giving the directive yesterday in Gwoza shortly after an assessment visit to the Government Secondary School IDP camp, Zulum revealed that no fewer than 3,000 households have returned to their liberated and safe communities in the state.

“We visited Bama yesterday (Wednesday) and supervised the screening of IDPs, and by 12 noon, the Bama IDP camp should be closed,” Zulum stated. “Today, we are here in Gwoza, we have profiled all of them, and Insha Allah, in the next two or three weeks, this camp will also be closed.”

According to him, the return has been made possible by the relative peace now prevailing in most communities that were previously occupied by Boko Haram insurgents.

However, Zulum expressed concern at the rising criminality within IDP camps, pointing to the proliferation of illicit activities that have turned these facilities into hotspots for social vices.

“In our camps now, there is an ongoing criminality; we have identified all of them, and they’ll be resettled based on their localities and to their community heads. Otherwise, Boko Haram/ISWAP are gradually infiltrating the camps,” he said.

He also condemned the trend of people leaving their homes to resettle in camps to collect relief items from non-governmental organisations, stating that a significant number of fake IDPs were identified during the screening exercise, and that the government cannot sustain the maintenance of camps under such circumstances.

Meanwhile, Zulum stated that the Gwoza IDP camp would be the next to be closed, along with several others in different parts of the state, before his tenure ends.

In the meantime, the governor disclosed that the bulk of those returning are women and children under the age of 14, highlighting the vulnerability of the displaced population.

In the meantime, Zulum has expressed deep concern over what he described as poor management and a lack of commitment by the current leadership of the Federal College of Education (FCE), Gwoza, to ensure the full take-off of academic activities in the institution.

Zulum noted that this was despite the state government committing over N200 million in take-off grants and completing a comprehensive rehabilitation of the College site.

The governor, who had earlier handed over the fully remodelled college site to the Federal Ministry of Education at a ceremony in Maiduguri, expressed disappointment with the management’s failure to demonstrate the requisite urgency and dedication to activate the institution.