The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has called on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at the Fufore IDPs camp in Adamawa to be calm and cooperate with officials of the agency as regards food distribution.
Mr Manzo Ezekiel, Head of NEMA’s press unit, made the appeal in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
Ezekiel said that information had reached the agency that the IDPs had for the past three months rejected the arrangement of food distribution made available to them.
He added that the 50kg of assorted food items, which was the monthly ratio per household as approved by the federal government should not be rejected.
“The 50kg monthly ratio per household is an approved quantity by the federal government since June 2017 under the Emergency Food Intervention in Northeast (EFINE) programme being implemented by the agency.
“In addition to the supplies by NEMA, under the programme, there was an understanding that the state government were to provide condiments as their contribution to the IDPs.
“The federal government has been providing the support to the IDPs in the three camps in the state ever since the commencement of the programme.
“However, in the immediate past three months of December, January and February, the IDPs living in Fufore camp had rejected the arrangement of the food distribution while others living in St. Theresa and Malkohi have been accepting this good gesture.
“There is no basis for them to have rejected the arrangement as it has been the quantity (50kg per households) being given across the North East,” he said.
He added that the agency on its part would be scaling up the ratio to include 4.5kg condiments per household from the month of March 2020.
“Additionally, the Agency on behalf of federal government of Nigeria have resolved to scale the ratio to include about 4.5kg of assorted condiments in subsequent distribution from March 2020.
“While, we acknowledge the concerns of the people for late distribution sometimes due to unforeseen logistical challenges, these are often inevitable in a complex task of this nature that covers all parts of the country.
“The agency appeals to the IDPs in the Northeast and entire country to cooperate with the agency in its continuous efforts to serve the citizens in distress,” he said. (NAN)
