A United States-based non-profit organization, Mission Africa International, has called on the Federal Government to do more in addressing the humanitarian needs of the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Benue State.
President of the organization, Pastor Oluwasayo Ajiboye made the call when he paid Governor Samuel Ortom a courtesy call at Government House, Makurdi after visiting some of the IDP Camps.
Pastor Ajiboye decried the extreme conditions in which the IDPs were living at the camps, especially children, with little or no assistance from the Federal Government, insisting that they need good shelter, food, medical services and other necessities.
The President of the Christian Group stated that it was against humanity for the Federal Government to abandon the IDPs in Benue while at the same time spending billions of naira to take care of those in Borno and other parts of Northern Nigeria.
Pastor Ajiboye noted that the organization would intervene in the area of providing quality education to the children as it has done in other places and appealed to other organisations to also redouble their efforts in assisting the IDPs.
He then commended Governor Samuel Ortom for consistently reaching out to the global community with the right information about what was happening in Benue and enjoined him to continue with the spirit as such efforts were yielding positive results.
In his remarks, Governor Samuel Ortom lamented that since 2016 when the Internally Displaced Persons started living at the substandard camps, the Federal Government has done little to assist them as it was doing to states in the core North.
Governor Ortom appealed to the Government through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management and the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA to do more in providing for the IDPs who he said were going through difficult times.
While calling on security agencies to disarm the Fulani herdsmen who have been carrying sophisticated weapons and attacking communities around the country.
The Governor thanked Mission Africa International for the intervention in has brought for the IDPs.
