The Customs Public Relations Officer, Mr Wale Adeniyi, who disclosed this in Abuja, weekend, also disclosed that the Comptroller General had set up a national committee that would coordinate and manage the movement and the transfer of seized relief items to give effect to the president’s directive.
He said the relief items currently in government warehouses for distribution to the IDPs included goods that had been forfeited to the federal government.
“It is important to stress that these items are only those that have been condemned properly in the competent court of law and had been forfeited to the government of Nigeria.
“They include food items like rice, vegetable oil, spaghetti and essential items like soap, used clothing materials, mosquito nets, bedding and others,’’ he said.
Hameed-Ali-now-customs-CGAdeniyi said that members of the committee were drawn from Customs Service, Army, Air Force, Police, Immigration Service and the EFCC.
According to him, the Customs boss also included some NGOs, civil society organisations and the media to give the committee a measure of transparency and credibility.
Adeniyi said that Customs had taken an initial step to determine the locations of the IDP camps. He said that the service had thought that IDPs camps were only in Borno and Adamawa states, but discovered that there were over 20 of such camps.
However, he said that the distribution of relief items to the IDPs would slightly be different from the previous ones the service had done: “This time around, our targets are not the IDPs camps; our targets are the IDPs themselves who are in these camps.’’
He said that the service would go beyond the IDPs camps to communities and villages where Nigerians had been displaced.
“We expect that the exercise will take a period of about eight weeks and the trip will start very soon. The exercise is going to be slightly different from what we have been doing before because we want these things to end up directly with the end users.
“We are going to be working with state governments, community leaders and other relief agencies to ensure that these items get to the IDPs in a secure and transparent manner,’’ Adeniyi assured.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission has said no fewer than 4,723 Internally Displaced Persons have been abandoned by governments at all levels at different locations in Taraba State.
A statement by the commission’s Deputy Director, Protection and Investigations, Mr. Labert Oparah, on Sunday, quoted the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe, as making this disclosure during an official visit to Taraba State.
Angwe’s visit to the state, according to the statement, was in continuation of his tour of the north-eastern states to assess the state of camps and facilities hosting the IDPs.
“The Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Bem Angwe, has lamented the abandonment of 4,723 Internally Displaced Persons at various locations in Taraba State,” the statement read in part.
Angwe was said to have observed during the tour that the conditions in the IDP camps in Taraba State were deplorable and needed an urgent attention.
The statement said the NHRC boss noted that despite the fact that most of the IDPs had spent over a year in their settlements, neither the government nor its relevant agencies showed concern about their plights.
It noted that for instance, at Gullong, where one of the settlements with over 259 IDPs’ camps was located, there were no foodstuffs, mattresses, security or medical facilities for the displaced persons and their children.
It added that children were roaming about without any form of education programme.
“The government of Taraba State and indeed relevant agencies have obligations and responsibilities to protect and provide for these people because they are Nigerian citizens,” he said
Angwe called on the National Emergency Management Agency to move in immediately and help the situation while promising to liaise with Presidential Initiatives on IDPs to intervene and bring succour to the IDPs.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, State Emergency Management Agency, Taraba State, Nugalga Dan-Habu, was quoted to have said that the state government was not aware of the presence of the IDPs whom he said integrated themselves with their host communities.
The leader of the Gullong IDPs settlement, Emmanuel Bulus, was also said to have noted, while conducting the Executive Secretary and NEMA’s Inspection Team round the camp, that apart from some support from some non-governmental organisations and some faith-based organisations, the IDPs in the camp had been on their own.
