Borno State unveils 580 houses for Internally Displaced Persons

The Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum has commissioned 580 units of two bedroom allocated immediately to the families of the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs who have been camps for years.

Professor Zulum unveiled the houses in Auno town of Konduga Local Government Area at a brief ceremony,  attended by government officials, the district head of Auno and displaced families. The houses were given under the state government’s drive towards safe and dignified resettlement of IDPs across the state.

The 580 houses were built by Borno’s Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RRR) on the Gorvernor Zulum’s approval.  A resettlement committee co-chaired by commissioner for RRR, Mustapha Gubio, and the Special Adviser on Sustainable Development, Partnerships and Humanitarian Support, Dr. Mairo Mandara, supervised the allocation of houses for resettlement.

The Governor presented letters of allocation to the families and directed the resettlement committee to work towards moving more displaced families from IDP camps to dignified homes.

He lamented that IDP camps have been faced with so many problems of prostitution, drug abuse and exploitation of humanitarian interventions by citizens who relocate to camps in the day time mainly to get food rations meant for those with more severe needs after which they return to their homes at night, leaving the real IDPs with less food allocations.

The Governor said ” I have directed the closure of government IDP camps at the Mohammed Goni College of Islamic Legal Studies (MOGOLIS) and the NYSC permanent orientation camps, while displaced persons were resettled.”

He noted that the measure aim at ensuring optimum use of MOGOLIS for academic activities.

The Commissioner for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RRR), Mustapha Gubio, explained that a total of 4,967 families, called households, were resettled with houses allocated to them in Damasak, Auno, Bama, Konduga town, Jere, Maiduguri and Marte.

Gubio also said that during house allocations, primary school teachers, nurses and security personnel were also  accorded and considered, given their roles in communities.

The Commissioner also announced more resettlement housing projects were ongoing and nearing completion amongst Kaleri, Warabe, Chibok, Ngarnam, Damboa, Marte, Dalori and more locations.