TheCable

The Borno state government has employed 1, 000 women among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as street vanguards to boost sanitation in the state capital.

Nasiru Surundi, the sole coordinator of the Borno State Environmental Protection Agency (BOSEPA), stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri.

Surundi said the IDPs, who were selected based on their applications, were posted to strategic locations in the state capital to clean the surroundings .

According to Surundi, more vanguards would be employed and posted to some of the local government areas liberated from the Boko Haram insurgents.

“The agency has procured high quality sanitation equipment which include about 400,000 chemical sprayers, vapour, excavators and hydrofoamers.”

Surundi said the gesture was also part of the agency’s efforts to prevent outbreak of diseases as well as create job opportunities for victims of the insurgency.

“We are constantly challenged by this negative behaviour of residents toward environmental issues such as indiscriminate littering and open defecation.

“We, therefore, engaged these women who are mostly widows and the most vulnerable victims of the insurgency who have lost their spouses to the mayhem.

“This is to enable them to have a means of livelihood as well as cater for their children and other loved ones,”Surundi concluded.