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…As Benue govt accuses herdsmen of destroying infrastructure
Abiodun OBA
Floods have devastated more than 200 households in Makurdi.
Executive Secretary, Benue State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Emmanuel Shior, made the disclosure in Makurdi on Wednesday at the monthly distribution of relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons.
Shior listed affected parts of the Benue capital as Naka Road, Achusa Kucha Utebe, Gyado Villa, Judge’s Quarters Extension and parts of Nyiman among others.
The Executive Secretary while noting that flooding was not this terrible in the state in the past, assured that the state’s Committee on Floods had approved the expansion of selected camps in Makurdi, Guma and Logo to accommodate flood victims.
Shior added that recent attacks on some communities in the state had resulted in the displacement of more than 400,000 people with the state government catering for the victims and refugees from Cameroon staying in Kwande Local Government Area of the state.
He appealed to the Federal Government to assist as the burden was becoming cumbersome for the state government.
Shior said assailants killed and maimed and also destroyed infrastructures such as markets, churches, and schools in communities attacked.
Meanwhile, the SEMA boss said that additional 600 people have been displaced in the state as a result of herdsmen attacks on communities in the past few weeks.
Shior said that the additional 600 displaced persons were recorded from four communities in Logo and Gwer West local government areas of the state.
Benue State Government had earlier put the figure of displaced persons in the state at over 1.5 million people.
He added that the humanitarian crisis in the state had affected infrastructural facilities such as schools, churches, health centers and other social amenities just as he decried the continued neglect of Internally Displaced Persons by the Federal Government.
The SEMA boss also said that some International Humanitarian Partners who are intervening in the North Eastern part of the country have neglected the plight of the displaced persons in the state.
He said, “There are over 200 International Humanitarian Partners with over 50 of them working in Borno State with less than 10 working in Benue State.
“It is unthinkable to keep IDPs for over 5 years. With such colossal damage to the State, the Federal government has neglected us. The President should write his name in gold and attend to the humanitarian situation in the state.
“With the recent herdsmen attacks on four communities in Logo and Gwer West, the number of displaced persons has risen to over 2 million people while the attacks have affected infrastructure in some communities across the state.
Continuing, Shior said, “Schools, churches, health centers and other amenities were completely destroyed in those communities attacked by herders.
“The State Governor, Samuel Ortom has remained relentless in providing for the IDPs”.
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