TheCable

The Borno government says it has uncovered 650 fake internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Mohammed Goni College of Islamic Legal Studies camp in Maiduguri, capital of the state.

Isa Gusau, special adviser on communications and strategy to the governor, released a statement to this effect on Sunday.

He said: “Around midnight on Sunday, Borno Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum showed up at Mohammed Goni College of Islamic Legal Studies in Maiduguri, where internally displaced persons from Abadam local government area of northern Borno were being camped.

“Zulum immediately sealed entrance and supervise a headcount to identify actual IDPs, in order to put a stop to rampant cases of dubious residents pretending to be displaced, who spend day times at IDP camps to share food meant for IDPs, and towards the night, they return to their homes to sleep, with some of benefiting from other means through which the state distributes food to vulnerable non IDPs in communities.

“Governor Zulum’s mission, which ended past 1am, discovered that out of 1,000 households in the records of humanitarian officials, 650 households were ghosts. 450 households were found to be real IDPs after Zulum’s midnight headcount which was conducted by the governor alongside an official of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Air Commodore M. T. Abdullahi, and two commissioners (Agriculture, and Local Government and Emirate Affairs).

“In humanitarian system, a household normally consist of at least six persons who are either related through families, or chosen to stay together for the purpose of receiving household aids.”

The statement added that while Zulum is not against support for vulnerable persons, he is “vehemently opposed to some residents making dubious claims in other to take what is meant for IDPs”.