Clear re-claimed areas for IDPs to return home, Dogara urges security agencies

The Speaker of the House of Representative, Mr Yakubu Dogara has advised relevant security agencies to clear all areas re-claimed from Boko Haram insurgent to enable the citizens return home.

Dogara made the call when he led members of the House to Damare Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camp in Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa on Saturday.

He said that the advice was necessarily to enable the displaced persons get back to their respective homes and villages.

“At our own level, we will do everything legally and politically possible to ensure that the IDPs get back to their respective homes very soon.

“And to that extend, we will encourage our Army and other relevant security agencies to quickly clear those areas they re-claimed from Boko Haram so that our brothers and sisters will go back home,” Dogara said.

He said that they were at the camp not only to bring food to the IDPs but to identify with them and give them hope.

He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Armed Forces for their sacrifice in defeating the insurgent in the North East region.

In his remarks, Alhaji Sani Sidi, the Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said that the Damare camp was one of the 11 camps established by the agency in collaboration with the state government.

Sidi said that presently, there are 2, 295 IDPs in the camp out of which 60 per cent were children below 13 years.

“In this particular camp, we have about 54 unaccompanied children, 51 pregnant women and 179 nursing mothers,’’ Sidi said.

He said that because of the security improvement, the seven camps were reduced to four.

“Most of the IDPs, especially those from Adamawa had returned to their respective homes and villages, while the agency reached them in their various localities and assisted them with relief materials.

“Our worry is that presently, there are 8,000 unaccompanied children and about 2,000 pregnant women in various camps across the North East region,’’ Sidi said.

He called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders on how to deal with the unaccompanied children situation.