Lt Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, rtd, has donated relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Benue state.
General Danjuma who made the donation through his organization, Victims Support Fund, VSF, donated food and non-food materials on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists at the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, office in Makurdi, the Executive Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Shior, appreciated VSF on behalf of Gorvenor Samuel Ortom and the IDPs in the state.
Flanked by officials of VSF, Mr. Shior stated that their donation coincided with the routine distribution of food items to IDPs by state government.
He further thanked T.Y Danjuma Foundation for also supporting the state in emergency locations in 2019 where they put up some structures for IDPs among other items, saying “Today, they are here to donate items to some of our communities beginning from Guma LGA and they have chosen Ortese IDP camp.
“We want to deeply appreciate VSF on behalf of state government and the IDPs and like Oliver Twist, we are asking that you will bring another round of intervention. We know that you are not only going to be in Ortese, you will visit other LGs including Logo, Kwande, Konshisha, Agatu and others. We are encouraging you to do more. After this round of intervention we want to see you again.”
The SEMA boss further appealed to T.Y. Danjuma to assist state government to secure support of the federal government for the permanent relocation of the IDPs back to their ancestral homes.
“The IDPs appreciate your interventions but this is not enough. What they want is an enduring solution to their situation which is to return back to their ancestral homes which we believe that T.Y Danjuma is in a position to interface with the Federal Government to assist the state government to do that.”
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He also appreciated other partners including the United State High Commissioner for Refugees, Doctors Without Borders, International Committed for the Red Cross, Community Links, Jireh Doo Foundation, BENGONET, United Nations Development Programme, UNDP for their assistance urging them to do more.
He said the United Nations Development Program me, UNDP, has trained over 160 IDPs in different skills acquisition and had also gone ahead to provide starter kits for them saying SEMA is housing the starter kits and will ensure that the trained IDPs benefit from that.
He urged the media to continue to report the sorry humanitarian crisis situation in the state to draw the attention of the Federal government, international Community and other partners to also address the infrastructure; roads, bridges, markets, schools, farms, in Benue state.
While lamenting recent attacks in Tarka, Kwande, Guma and Gwer West, Shior said Benue has about 2million IDPs currently saying “with the return of the rains, we have much on our hands because this is the time we have to improve on their shelter conditions, provide mosquito nets, insecticides, carry out fumigation of camps and we need money to do it.”
