IDPs Intervention Funds: Reps Grill NEMA Over Mismanagement Of Several Billions
By Our Reporter
The House of Representatives has queried the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) over poor management of funds for vulnerable Nigerians across the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the country.
The Chairman, House Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, Rt. Hon. Joseph Bassey, frowned at the shortage of distribution of food and non food materials to vulnerable Nigerians across the IDP camps.
Bassey, who spoke with journalists after an investigation of activities in camps, said that the funds that have been released so far by the Federal Government to rehabilitate the displaced Nigerians have been under utilized by NEMA.
According to him, the Agency had only resorted to distributing garri, noodles and rice without adequately addressing livelihood and long term benefits for the IDPs.
He frowned that with the hundreds of billions of naira released to NEMA so far, there was no plan for skills acquisition for the IDPs.
According to the lawmaker, not long ago, the Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shetta, revealed that President Tinubu had approved N50 billion to NEMA, to kick-start the Pulaku initiative which was a non-kinetic solution to the crisis confronting the people of the northwest.
“As a lawmaker, we must be proactive and sensitive to the plights of our people. From what I have seen so far on ground, NEMA has not done the right thing in the welfare of these displaced Nigerians.
“The funds that have been released to them in hundreds of billions have been mismanaged and the DG must be held to account for it.
“From what we have seen on ground, it was only garri, indomie and rice that have been distributed to the IDPs. Is there no room for equipping them with skills to make them self reliance?”
“Now that serious flooding have been predicted to happen in the coming days, is it only garri and rice that would be available to those who will be affected? Is that what is going to sustain them?"
The chairman further concerned on the State-to-State distribution records of the agency which he described as higher level of injustice on the vulnerable Nigerians, and this cannot be accepted henceforth.
“We were elected to serve humanity; what I have seen on ground falls short of what we can accept from the agency,” he said.
