By Amos Aar
THE Benue State Emergency Management Agency (BSEMA) has disclosed that for the first time since 2018 when suspected Fulani herdsmen resumed their attacks on Benue communities, the federal government has offered assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the State.
The Executive Secretary of BSEMA, Dr Emmanuel Shior, disclosed this on Tuesday at the agency’s headquarters in Makurdi during the flag-off of the monthly distribution of food items to IDPs in the state.
Shior while lamenting that no support had come from the federal government since the renewed attacks on Benue communities that rendered many indigenes homeless and purged them of their livelihoods for many years, he acknowledged that the federal government finally gave intervention this month, November, 2022.
“Additionally, we have received support from federal government through NEMA [National Emergency Management Agency]. Even as we have reported negligence on the part of the federal government for not doing enough to attend to the teeming population of the IDPs in Benue, it is said that the devil be given his due. This time, the federal government is here with relief intervention. Part of that is for IDPs who are in the camps and in the host communities and part of that food is to be given to the flood victims,” Shior said.
He added that NEMA also provided non-food items like clothes for children and mosquito nets.
In addition to the assistance, Shior said the Benue State Government through BSEMA has also received “huge support from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints” and they have distributed it to flood victims of some communities in Makurdi.
Speaking further on how the state government accessed assistance and utilised the items, Shior said; “we also received support from wife of the president, Aisha Buhari, through Sen. Oluremi Tinubu who added her N10 million to it”. The money according to the executive secretary was shared to two hundred (200) most vulnerable flood victims who were given fifty thousand naira (N50,000) each.
The executive secretary announced that there are over two million IDPs in Benue State who are in the camps and in the host communities “as a result of Fulani herdsmen attacks”, adding that about 27,000 of the displaced persons are in Konshisha local government area and their displacement was occasioned by military invasion.
Following the increased number of the IDPs, Shior said BSEMA was emptying its warehouse for the month of November to distribute all food items to the IDPs in the state. He said the items to be distributed for the month of November which included rice, noodles and some grains came from the federal government, Governor Ortom and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints.
“At the end of the day, we are not going to leave anything in the warehouse, we are taking out everything because our people are suffering and the Governor of Benue State is passionate for the well-being of his people, for the IDPs and for the people of Benue.
“So, if the governor has mobilised my office to procure items for the persons of our concern, I’m keeping in line with the core values and virtues of this administration which emphasise honesty, transparency, probity and accountability. I assure you that we are not going to leave anything behind in our warehouse. We are going to remove everything to be distributed directly to the persons of our concern including displaced persons in Gbeji in Ukum local government where over 36 persons were killed” recently by suspected herdsmen militia.
Giving update on the recent flooding that engulfed some parts of Benue State, Shior said; “we have 134,000 displacements as a result of the flooding that occurred this year, 2022.
“On record, about 24 Persons died as a result of the flooding”.
“NEMA has directed me to work with chairmen of the local government areas affected by the flood to profile farmers for Emergency Agricultural Intervention Programme. Part of that package will look at the possibility of assisting the affected farmers to carry out dry season farming”, Shior hinted.
