The North East Development Commission NEDC has presented ten thousand bags of assorted food and non food items to repentant insurgents and other victims of insurgency to fast track their resettlement process.
There are about sixty thousand repentant insurgents and their families undergoing deradicalization process in holding facilities in Borno state.
Managing Director of the Commission Alhaji Mohammed Akali said the relief items presented was to support the ongoing resettlement efforts by the state government.
He explained that although the federal government had constituted an inter-agency Committee to ensure seamless return of IDPs and repentant insurgents, the Commission deemed it necessary to provide palliatives to those in camps and newly resettled communities.
“We thought it very necessary to assist the state government in providing some palliatives in terms of food and non food items so that those who are around especially those in the camps and those who have moved back to their domain or resettled somewhere should be assisted before the federal government effort should materialise” The Managing Director said.
Alhaji Mohammed Akali said the Commission procured the food items from a food processing company in an effort to revive ailing industries in the region.
Receiving the items on behalf of Borno state government, Director General Borno state Emergency Management Agency Hajiya Yabawa Kolo thanked NEDC for the assistance.
She remarked that the intervention would go a long way in the resettlement of displaced persons back to their ancestral homes.
Hajiya YaBawa Kolo assured that the state government was committed to the deradicalization effort to ensure lasting peace was restored to Borno and the entire region.
Items presented included 10,000 bags of 25kg rice, 10,000 bags of maize grids, 4,000 cartons of spaghetti, 4,000 gallons of cooking oil, 5,000 blankets and 5,000 plastic mats.
Dauda Iliya