The Borno State
Government on Thursday scrapped the central feeding programme of the Internally
Displaced Persons in camps in the state.
The decision of the
government followed a protest by a large
number of the IDPs on some major roads in Maiduguri, the state campaign over
their feeding system.
Hundreds of the
displaced persons, the majority of who are women, IDPs took to the streets
between 9am and 1pm on Thursday, barricading the Maiduguri-Kano/Jos Road, the
major road leading into the town, to protest what they claimed was shortage of
food supply at the Arabic Teachers College camp in the state capital.
The protesters
obstructed vehicular movement and grounded business activities in the town as
commuters were unable to pass.
Some of the protesters
who spoke to journalists alleged that foodstuffs had been in short supply as
food meant for them were diverted by officials.
They called for the
removal of the members of the central feeding committee.
The protesters chanted,
“We’re hungry and we don’t want any feeding committee again because they aren’t
giving us quality food. Give us our foods directly.”
The protesters also
refused to accept several appeals by the police to disperse from the road until
the arrival of the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Usman Durkwa, who doused the
tension.
Durkwa, who was
returning from another IDPs camp in the capital to supervise feeding of
displaced persons, announced the immediate suspension of the central feeding
committee at the camp and the introduction of household feeding.
He said each family
would henceforth be receiving foodstuffs from the state government.
Speaking with newsmen
later, the deputy governor said government had already moved trucks of
foodstuffs to the camp to start the household feeding programme.
Source: PUNCH
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