From Ahmad Mohammed, Bauchi
56,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from different parts of Northern states, who are taking refuge in Bauchi State, have asked the State Governor Bala Muhammad Abdulkadir to provide them with land and give their children employment.
The State Chairman of IDPs, Alhaji Buba Musa Shehu stated this yesterday in Bauchi when he led 20 local government chairmen of IDPs to address a press conference in Bauchi.
Buba said despite intervention and support by President Muhammadu Buhari, through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and North East Development Commission NEDC, aside support from the wife of Bauchi State Governor Hajiya Aisha Bala Muhammad, they still need the Governor to come in and address bulk of their problems.
He said “ many of us are in Bauchi since 2012 some came in 2013, 2014, our camps was closed many of us rent houses , but due to lack of employment we cannot get money to pay for the rent , we have nowhere to go but Bauchi, we want the governor to include our children in government empowerment programme and employment schemes of the government, in order to ameliorate our problems”
He said: “We are pleading with the state government to help IDPs with capital to start a business, land to build houses and other necessary support to enable them fully settle in the state”.
He attributed the influx of IDPs in Bauchi to the recent attack on Gaidam in Yobe State and other parts of Borno State.
Buba said: “We are about 56,000 households across the 20 local councils of Bauchi. We are pleading with the Bauchi State Government to give us places to stay with our families. I have been in Bauchi State since 2014, when I escaped from Boko Haram attacks in Maiduguri, Borno State. Like myself, other IDPs are living in different host communities”
