Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state, has returned 525 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to Marte community amid tight security. According to him, Marte residents were severally attacked by Boko Haram between 2014 and 2016, before fleeing to take refuge in Maiduguri IDP camps. Zulum, who was represented by his deputy, Umar Kadafur on Tuesday in Marte disclosed that living in IDP camps for over six years could not he sustained by government and humanitarian agencies. “Our people are tired of living in the 46 IDP camps,” he lamented, noting that the displaced persons are determined and eager to return to their liberated communities.” The over a decade long insurgency, has also claimed 36,000 lives with property worth $9.2 trillion (about N3.42 trillion) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. While distributing food and non-food items yesterday, he said that the state government and humanitarian agencies encourage the IDPs return to their ancestral homes. According to him, each of the 525 IDP households, are provided with three bags each of rice, guinea corn and beans, including clothes and N105 million support. He this will enable them pickup their lives with the restoration of lost means of livelihoods. He urged the returnees to cooperate with military, by providing credible information on the operations of Boko Haram in their respective communities, On challenges of returning IDPs, the Commissioner of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RRR), Mustapha Gubio, disclosed: “The challenges are enormous, but we thanked God, as we have overcome some of them by returning IDPs to five communities.” According to him, the communities, include Ajiri, Auno, Ngoshe, Kawuri and Baga, on shores of Lake Chad. He said the main challenge of returning IDPs to liberated communities, is the issue of transporting building materials. He noted that because of poor state of 209-kilometre Maiduguri/Marte road, construction of houses had to be suspended last year. “It’s now that we commence the construction of 525 houses,” he said, adding that a health centre, police station and primary school are completed for returnees’ use.
