FG Says Relocating IDPs To Their Ancestral Homes Is Priority

CHANNELS TV

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Khadija Bukar Ibrahim says the current priority of the Federal Government is to ensure that all the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the country are relocated to their ancestral homes.

The Minister was speaking on Sunday in Damaturu the Yobe State capital when she led the Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Ashraf Salama, to deliver food and non-food items to victims of Boko Haram insurgency in the state.

The materials were sent to the displaced persons in the state by a renowned Egyptian Islamic Scholar, Sheik Ahmed Altayyid.

The Minister said that with the return of peace, the federal government is working hard to ensure that the displaced are relocated to their various homes.

She said that the priority of government was to reconstruct the destroyed private and public buildings as well as replace infrastructure vandalized by the insurgents to make life more meaningful to the people who will be returning to the regained territories.

Mrs Bukar Ibrahim praised the state government’s efforts toward making life comfortable for the displaced persons and called on other philanthropists to come to the aid of IDPs.

She also commended security operatives in regaining the earlier captured territories and called on the people to partner them in their efforts to return peace across the northeast and the entire country.

The Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Ashraf Salama, expressed sadness with the security situation that submerged the northeast and wondered how the insurgents would wrongly use Islam to pursue their selfish ambitions.

He said that no religion would justify the ungodly and senseless killings and destruction caused to the people of the zone, adding that Sheik Ahmed Altayyid who sent the items to the IDPs has continued to offer prayers for the return of peace in the northeast, the country and Africa as a whole.

The relief materials were received at the Pompomari IDP camp in Damaturu the Yobe State capital by the Deputy Governor, Abubakar Aliyu, who ordered the usage of the materials in the host camp.

Earlier during a visit to the Government House, the Deputy Governor had appreciated the efforts of the Egyptian clergy and the Ambassador for the gesture.

He gave the assurance that the materials would be used in improving the lives of the IDPs.