Rising insecurity is taking its toll on communities across the country as no fewer than 12 states are battling with problems of persons displaced by bandits or insurgents.
Findings by The PUNCH showed that the most affected states were Benue, Borno, Kebbi, Plateau, Gombe, Sokoto, Katsina, Niger, Yobe and Adamawa.
It was gathered that although Ebonyi had internally displaced persons, the problem arose partly as a result of communal clashes and attack by security forces.
But the displaced persons in Cross River are refugees from Cameroon.
It was learnt that in many of the states, particularly in the North, a lot of rural communities and farms had been abandoned following incessant attacks by bandits.
These came to the fore as gunmen killed 25 people in separate attacks in Plateau and Benue states on Sunday night.
It was learnt that eight local government areas of Benue State were grappling with problems associated with displaced persons.
According to the state government, one million people are currently displaced in the state as a result of attacks by herdsmen.
It was learnt LGAs battling with humanitarian crisis following herders’ invasions included Guma, Makurdi, Logo, Agatu, Ado and Gwer West. The IDP crisis in some parts of Katsina Ala is associated with both attacks by herdsmen and local bandits.
Findings indicated that the displaced people in the Kondhisha Local Government Area were the victims of the military attack following the murder of 12 soldiers by the Bonta militias in April.
In the Ado LGA, the displaced people are victims of herdsmen invasions and those of Ebonyi and Benue border clashes.
The Chairman of the LGA, James Oche, in an interview with one of our correspondents, said attacks by herdsmen and the persistent communal clashes between the Effium community in Benue and Ezza people of Ebonyi had caused significant humanitarian crisis for the local government area.
Two IDPs in Ado, Francis and Ngozi Nweto, who spoke to The PUNCH, lamented that their continuous stay in the IDP camp had affected their farming. They called on both state and federal governments to provide adequate security for them to return to their home.
The President General of the Tiv socio-cultural group, known as Mdzough U Tiv Worldwide, Iorbee Ihagh, in an interview with one of our correspondents, described the number of displaced people in the state as very alarming.
Ihagh said, “According to data at my disposal, over one million people have been displaced from their ancestral homes because of herdsmen attacks and I pity the governor of the state, Samuel Ortom, whose responsibility is to take care of these people alongside the other demands.”
He also reminded the Federal Government of its pledge to release N10bn for the resettlement of people affected by herdsmen invasion in 2018.
Responding to questions on WhatsApp, the Executive Secretary of the state Emergency and Management Agency, Dr Emmanuel Shior, said, “There are one million displaced persons and seven IDP camps in Benue State as recorded and updated in April.”
Investigations showed that residents of communities in 11 local government areas of Katsina State had been displaced as a result of attacks by herdsmen.
The local government areas are Batsari,Jibia Sabuwa,Danmusa, Safana, Matazu, Kankara, Dandume, Dutsin-ma, Kurfi and Malumfashi.
Although the state government has shut the IDP camps in the state, it is currently carrying out an enumeration of orphans and widows who are victims of bandits’ attacks.
The Head of the Matazu Local Government Administration Alhaji Yahaya Sani, said the exercise was to know the exact number of the affected victims, whose family members had been killed as a result of bandits’ attacks in some of the 34 local governments areas of the state .
A large-scale farmer in the Batsari Local Government Area, Mallam Abba Abubakar, stated that he feared going to farm because of activities of bandits.
He stated, “The bandits would attack you on the farms and rustle the cows you are using to farm. They will also kidnap all the farm hands you are using and ask you to pay a ransom, if you are lucky that you are not kidnapped or killed too.”
Another farmer, Tukur Abubakar, said apart from being forced to relocate from his community to Batsari because of activities of bandits and kidnappers , he and numerous farmers could no longer go to farm.
The spokesman for the Katsina police command, SP Gambo Isah, in an interview, assured people of the state that security operatives in the state were doing all they could to tackle banditry.
It was learnt in Borno State, communities in 20 out of 27 local government areas in the state had been displaced following incessant attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents.
Local government areas where people have been displaced and activities paralysed include Guzamala, Abadam, Marte, Kukawa, Bama, Damboa, Gamboru Ngala, Kala balge, Dikwa, Bama, Mobbar, Konduga, Kaga, Gubio, Magumeri and Nganzai.
Many communities in the southern part of the state, including Chibok and Gwoza local government areas, have also been dislodged by the insurgents.
Also, it was learnt that in the Guzamala Local Government Area, where the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan hails from, all residents had fled.
Speaking in an interview with one of our correspondents, Gombe State Commissioner for Information Julius Ishaya, said the recent communal clashes in the Shongom Local Government Area had produced about 500 to 1,000 persons displaced persons.
While lamenting the huge financial implications in settling persons that were displaced, Ishaya said, “The unfortunate thing is that you don’t prepare for them (the clashes). When they happen, you have to mobilise resources to make sure you handle emergency issues like the relief materials.”
Survivors of bandits’ attacks from the Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area and part of Zuru Emirate in Kebbi State are currently staying in an IDP camp in Dabai, Zuru.
Narrating his ordeal, Nuhu Bitrus, from Munhaye village in Wasagu Chiefdom, said, “We have been staying in the camp since bandits invaded our village on January 23 and kidnapped 20 women. Now we cannot go near the village. No one is talking about us.”
Wakala Audu, 50, who is also staying at the camp, said he and many others were displaced from D’Lombo village in Wasagu Chiefdom.
He said that his village, which had about 300 households with large fertile land, had been deserted as residents fled after incessant attacks by herdsmen.
In Sokoto, IDP camps are located in Gandi in the Rabah Local Government, while those displaced by bandits in Isa and Sabon Birni local government areas are taking refuge in the neighbouring Niger Republic.
Findings showed that in Zamfara State, 113 communities had been deserted by residents.
In the Anka Local Government Area, an indigene, Alhaji Mohammed Sama,ila told The PUNCH that 52 communities had been deserted by residents who moved to IDP camps in Anka and Bagega.
The affected communities, according to Samaila, include Yarkuka,Taggaram,Ruma,Tungar Shehu,Tsabta, Faruwa, Kaya, Kuru-Kuru,Takkuwoyi, Zaune, Gidan Duna, Reri, Nagarawa, Gidan nabarau and Dokar bera.
In the Gusau LGA, an indigene Malam Ibrahim Kazauda, said 27 villages had been abandoned by people who moved to IDP camps in Mada and Gusau.
In the Maru LGA, an indigene Bilyaminu Shehu, told The PUNCH on the telephone that residents of 23 villages had fled to Magami town.
Shehu said, “As I am talking to you now, bandits are going round farmlands to make sure that no farmer is allowed to cultivate his farm.”
In the Zurmi LGA, eight communities were deserted according to a resident, Ibrahim Zurmi.
The communities, according to him, are Rimni Tsohuwa, Rimni Sabuwa, Yallatawa, Sabaru, Gidan Kara, Dada, Marmaro and Kadamutsa.
Zurmi further explained that the bandits had been going round, monitoring the farmlands within the local government area to make sure that the farmers did not go to their farmlands.
Apart from the eight communities, one of our correspondents learnt that residents of Kadawa, Magarya and Yanbuki villages relocated to Kaura-Namoda on Friday when bandits killed 93 people in the communities.
Although security agents were drafted to the villages, many residents refused to go back to the communities.
A former Commissioner of the state’s ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Faika Ahmed, had during a four-day workshop for review of the state’s Social Protection Policy in Abuja disclosed that in “Zamfara has 34,000 heads of households who are internally displaced persons.”
A visit by our correspondent to the Government Secondary School, Tsunami Gusau which had been turned into an IDP camp, showed that there were 2,525 internally displaced persons in the camp.
A mother of three, Maryam Sani, who said she came from Marbe village, told The PUNCH that her husband was killed in her presence by the bandits who invaded their village in night a few months ago.
Commenting on the IDP crisis, the Special Adviser to Governor Bello Matawalle on Media, Public Enlightenment and Communication, Alhaji Zailani Baffa, said, “Zamfara State receives no single kobo in support of the humanitarian crisis created by the menace of banditry.”
In Cross River State, government is battling with the problem of Cameroonian refugees who were displaced from the neighbouring country.
Yobe State is affected by insurgency particularly in local government areas such as Geidam, Yunusari, Hausari and Buni Yadi, but the displaced persons relocated to houses of relatives within Damaturu, the state capital.
In Plateau State, most of the 17 LGAs have internally displaced persons, it was learnt.
The Chairman of the Front Line Communities, Benjamin Shaweng , in an interview, put the number of IDPs in the state at over 10,000.
According to him, the LGAs mostly affected are Bassa, Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Jos South, Mangu and Bokkos LGA and Jos North
Shaweng said, “At the last count, we have over 10,000 internally displaced persons taking refuge in five camps until recently when the state government forcefully ordered them to vacate the camps for no reason.
“If you go to Gashish district ,you will still find people squatting in primary schools with nobody to take care of them Their situation evokes pity because of suffering and several calls for government to come to their aide and assist them in rebuilding their lives have not been heeded.”
There are over 10000 IDP camps in Ebonyi State, but it was learnt that no single displaced person stayed in any of them.
A source in Effium community in the Ohaukwu Local Government Area of the state, where no fewer than 4500 natives were displaced recently as a result communal clashes, told one of our correspondents that none of the natives could stay in the IDPs camp in the area, because they had been abandoned and overgrown with weeds.
Speaking in Abakaliki, the Executive Secretary, Ebonyi State Emergency Management Agency, Pastor Ken Eke, confirmed that there were over 10,000 IDPS camps in the state.
“The IDPs go to neighbouring communities where their relatives are. Once in awhile, you also find them in primary schools and churches. In fact, some of them are in churches right now.”
In Adamawa State, two camps remaining for victims of insurgency are the Malkohi IDP camp with a total IDP population of 1,850 and the Fufore IDP Camp with 2,000 victims.
In many communities in Niger State, particularly in the Shiroro LGA, it was learnt that farmers were abandoning their farms because of attacks by bandits, who kidnapped residents and demanded ransom. – Punch
