Over 800 households of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have founded a new camp in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, where they are staying in critical and deplorable conditions.
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are camped at Tse Yandev, along the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, (FUAM), road, in Makurdi Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
The Next Edition correspondent gathered that the IDPs were ejected by the Chairman of Makurdi LGA, Anthony Dyegye, from a market site near the 72 Army Battalion barracks road to the University of Agriculture road.
They have been at the new camp since December 10, 2020, to date where their numbers have also continued to swell.
As at Tuesday morning when journalists visited the camp, the inmates were yet to be profiled by the State government through State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
The Next Edition observed that the displaced persons had no proper shelter except for the makeshift tents they made with palms fronds, sticks, covered with torn rice bags, torn cloths, grasses and torn mosquito nets.
The shelters are so low that a child of five years could hardly go in without bending down.
There was neither a water source nor a toilet as they trek into their neighborhood, sometimes, kilometers, to look for water and practice open defecation, a situation that may lead to an outbreak of disease.
Speaking to journalists, the Chairman of the camp, John Adzenda, called on the state government for urgent assistance.
Mr. Adzenda said “We were displaced in 2018 and we have been staying along the 72 Battalion Barracks when in December, the Makurdi local government chairman came and told us to vacate the place.
“When we asked where he is taking us to, he showed us this place that he wanted to use that place to establish a market.
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Adzenda who hails from Uvigh council ward, in Guma Local Government Area of the state said “since that January 1, 2018 attack, we have not gone back home. In fact, in my compound as I speak, nobody is there.
He called on the state government to send them relief materials and also provide them with shelter.
“We don’t have water here. We just got out there to source for water from our neighbours. To defecate, we dig and bury while many others go out there to ease themselves.
He said it was by the grace of God that no one has contacted any disease or died since they started staying there adding, “we have women, children and elderly people here and the condition here is not good for anyone.
“We don’t have shelter, water or toilets. Nothing is here. I can say we are sleeping in the open. I want government to intervene so that we can be a bit comfortable. The rainy season is coming soon and we don’t have a place to stay yet,” Adzenda said.
In separate interviews, Eunice Kundu, from Obi local government of Nasarawa state and Faith Samuel from Kasuwa Mbagwa in Nasarawa cried out to government to assist them. “Since we came here, we don’t have enough food and our children are not in school”, Faith said.
The Executive Secetary of State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Mr. Emmanuel Shior, said that government and other partners were working towards meeting some basic needs of the IDPs.
“We (government) are aware of that camp and we are working with other partners to give them support.
We are working with ActionAid; they are supporting government in the area of shelter; government is providing security; government is also providing assistance in the area of water while Doctors Without Borders are intervening in the area of Water, Sanitation and Hygeine, (WASH), he said.
