Female IDP's begging a camp official
Given the living condition of Internally Displaced Person’s
(IDPS’s) in the North East, there is an indication that about 66 percent
of camp officials, 28 percent from host communities and 6 percent of
elders are s*xually molesting the vulnerable ones, a
situational assessment survey on IDP’s in North-East conducted by NOI
Polls has revealed.
NOIPolls, incorporated in 2007 has been in the forefront of
championing public opinion research in Nigeria and across the West
African sub-region in technical partnership with Gallup (USA).
Among startling revelations from the report is that some of the
female IDPs voluntarily offer camp officials s*x for food and for
freedom of movement within and outside the camps just as others offer
themselves for basic female sanitary requirements.
The major aim of the survey was to highlight the controversies
surrounding the general welfare of IDP’s in the North-East. It was
conducted between July 4th to July 29th, 2016 where a total of 400
contacts attempted the questions.
A breakdown of the report indicated that 190 respondents were drawn from Borno, 128 in Adamawa and 82 in Yobe states.
The respondents were aged between 18 years and above while the
face-to-face survey technique enabled NOIPolls to capture the reality of
the IDPs.
According to the findings, “Though the provision of firewood is
the responsibility of local government areas and State Emergency
Management Agency (SEMA) as stipulated in the Memorandum
of Understanding signed between federal government and state government,
thousands of IDP’s including lactating mothers, children and elderly
starve due to the absence of firewood.
The survey however revealed increase in social vices at the camps
like drug abuse, consumption of illicit drugs, prostitution and petty
crime as a result of the general poor welfare and deplorable living
conditions of the IDPs.
“There are also rising cases of unwanted pregnancies, s*xually
transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDs while some IDP’s had fallen
prey to unscrupulous members of host communities who take advantage of
their plight to force them into early marriages and even kidnap them for
child labour”, the report added.
The report highlighted that 85 percent of IDPs in Adamawa and 84
percent in Yobe are facing incidences of discrimination compared to 76
percent in Borno which was linked to ethnic problems that had existed
between the northern and southern Borno natives.
Presenting the survey, the Chief Executive Officer of NOIPolls, Dr
Bell Ihua confirmed that only 10 to 20 percent of IDP’s lived in camps
while 80 to 90 percent lived in host communities stressing that petty
crimes and drug abuse were also on the increase at the camps.
Ihua regretted the rising cases of mortality, which he said that 88
percent IDP’s died on daily basis as was witnessed during the survey
adding that there was a cholera outbreak in the camps.
He requested for unannounced presidential visit by Muhammadu Buhari
to Maiduguri as a way of boosting the morals of security agencies
fighting insurgency in the area even as he advocated for increased
funding for the IDP’s.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Civil Society Organisation Network,
Borno state, Amb Ahmed Shehu expressed worry over the increasing cases
of prostitution at the camps which may result to HIV/ AIDS and other
infectious diseases.
“In camps and host communities, women need cash-based
assistance to establish livelihoods such as tailoring, processing and
selling flour or groundnut oil, milk and among others”, he said.
On his part, the Director of Forefront Media, Mr Mohammed Alfa who
is a native of Gwoza called on the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) and independent Corrupt Practices and other related
Offences Commission (ICPC) to visit Borno state and access the financial
impropriety of Borno government towards the starving IDP’s
Culled from: The Leadership
Meanwhile a lady who made an investigation into the matter, has
taken to her Twitter page to make more shocking revelation. Read below;
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