Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state has distributed food and
non-food items to 10,000 households of Kala/Balge Council; taking
refuge over Boko Haram insurgency at Kala-Balge, the council
headquarters.
Kala-Balge is the remotest border council area with Cameroon and about
220 kilometres, north of Maiduguri, the state capital.
Zulum in his two-day official engagements to the border council, also
pledged to resettled displaced persons of Wulgo community that were
sacked by Boko Haram insurgency.
Spokesman of Governor, Isa Gusau in a statement Tuesday in Maiduguri
disclosed: “This is the fourth visit by the Governor to local
government area that shares border with Cameroon.”
According to him, because of insecurity, Zulum was flown from
Maiduguri to Rann, onboard a military chopper, on Sunday May 31, 2020.
On Zulum’s border council visits, he said: “The Governor who had made
three previous similar trips, the first being in June, 2009, few days
after coming into office, when he undertook the need assessment of
public facilities and subsequently ordered construction works.
“He was later to return in December 2009 to distribute cash to 15,000
widows affected in the decade long Boko Haram insurgency.
“Zulum returned to Kala-Balge in February this year to distribute N100
million cash to 10,000 insurgency trapped families.”
He said last Sunday; the governor supervised the distribution of
relief items to mostly women and aged men amongst other vulnerable
persons in need.
According to him, about 300 Nigerians taking refuge in Cameroon who
returned to Rann benefiting from the food items distribution.
He said each beneficiaries received a bag of maize grains; two each
cartons and bags of spaghetti and rice.
Other distributed items, include cooking oil, while female
beneficiaries got wrappers in addition to the food items.
While lamenting hard reaching council areas, he said: “Residents in
Rann have since mid-last year been trapped without road access to
farmlands due to the flood from a dam.
“This also forced Nigerians in Rann to resort to neighboring Cameroon
Republic for their livelihoods.
He said the governor at a news conference also acknowledged food
contributions from the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, the
Northeast Development Commission (NEDC), National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA) and Dangote Foundation.
His words: “I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the President
and Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari, for all
that he has been doing towards repositioning the northeast.
“I also wish to express my appreciation to the Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs, Northeast Development Commission, as well as
NEMA and Dangote Foundation; all of them have contributed to the
success of this exercise.”
