IDPs’ Upkeep: Benue SEMA Shops For N500m Monthly Upkeep

The Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said that it needs about N500million for the provision of basic necessities for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP),  in the State.
The state’s IDP is reportedly to be about 2milliion.
The Executive Secretary, SEMA, Benue State, Dr. Emmanuel Shior, made the disclosure in Makurdi while flagging off the monthly distribution of food and non-food items to the official and unofficial IDPs camps in the State.
Shior lamented that the humanitarian crisis in the state occasioned by armed herdsmen attacks had overwhelmed the state government adding that the state government was struggling with the burden and without support from the Federal Government .
“We need about N500million to take care of the basic needs of the IDPs on a monthly basis.
“We know that food is very very expensive. A truck of 25kg rice which is about 1,200 bags is about N18million. What we have here is not enough to go round. So in terms of purchasing food and non-food items that should be enough, we need approximately N500million to buy enough items for the IDPs monthly.
“It is unfortunate that Benue State has been abandoned and the IDPs have been neglected by the Federal Government; and the challenge at hand is very huge that it cannot be left to the Benue State government alone.
“Fortunately Governor Samuel Ortom has been relentless not only in working and ensuring that he mobilises Benue SEMA on a monthly basis to respond to some of the basic needs of the IDPs, but also ensuring that in other areas of human endeavor he works to ensure that the lives of Benue citizens are actually better.
“The situation we have in our hands is not only humanitarian, in most of the communities that they attacked they also destroyed the infrastructure, farmlands, crops schools, markets, churches and even bridges so as to make it difficult for security agencies to access the attacked communities and those they are occupying.
“So it is difficult for the government to return the IDPs. And this has been in existence for over four years since 2018 but we will not be tired of talking about this. Some people who want to be mischievous try to compare the humanitarian situation in Benue state to what is happening in Borno state.
“It is unfortunate to make that kind of comparison because there is no basis for it. Benue State has been neglected, the IDPs have been abandoned by the Federal Government; and indeed the challenge at hand is very huge that it cannot be left to the Benue State Government alone”, Shior said.