Olaniyi Apanpa
About 15,000 people displaced by the recent flooding in Jigawa State are currently taking refuge in 45 primary and secondary schools that have been converted into IDP camps across the state.
The Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Haruna Mairiga, disclosed this in a telephone interview with The Punch on Tuesday.
He stated that the primary challenge facing the state government is how to resettle the flood victims, as they must be relocated to a safer area.
“The major challenge confronting the government is how to resettle these IDPs because of their number and, moreover, they must be relocated elsewhere.
“The area they were living in is on lower ground, so they must be relocated to higher ground to avoid a recurrence in the future,” he said.
According to him, the state government has so far purchased food items worth N2 billion and distributed them to the IDPs.
“We have distributed food to the IDPs in their camps about four times. As you know, we are using schools as camps. If not for the good understanding we have with the schools, teaching and learning would have been disrupted,” Mairiga said.
He praised various organisations for their donations, especially the World Health Organization, which provided medicines for treating the IDPs.
It should be recalled that following the flood disaster, which affected many local government areas of the state, the displaced people were resettled in some primary and secondary schools in the area.
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