The Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation(PCFRR) has asked the Plateau State Emergency Management Agency(SEMA) to protect the new Internally Displaced Persons camp built by the Federal Government in the state from vandals.
An official of PCFRR, Mr John Owoicho, made the request on Thursday in Kalong, near Shendam, Plateau, when he, on behalf of the committee, handed over the first phase of the ultramodern camp to SEMA.
Owoicho also urged SEMA to be proactive by putting in place constant maintenance and adequate security measures to prevent hoodlums from accessing the facility.
He said that the camp project was initiated by the defunct Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2012 and supervised by the committee.According him, the camps built in 24 states were ravaged by the 2012 flood and were meant to serve as immediate evacuation centres for victims of disasters.
He said that two blocks of storey building were approved for the Kalong camp out of which the first was ready for use in case of an emergency.“Additional projects such as administrative block, kitchen and warehouse situated in the camp were completed in 2017.
“However, there was communication gap between the consultant and the contractor, and there was an inferno that razed the structure.
“The committee spent over N5 million in refurbishing the camp after the incident,”Owoicho said.
He appealed to the Shendam Local Government Council and SEMA to provide adequate security to the facility to avoid a reoccurrence of the incident.Acting Executive Secretary of SEMA, Mrs Rose Dakwal, said that the agency initially took over the project in 2017 but returned it to the committee in 2018 after the fire incident.
Dakwal assured the committee of the agency’s commitment to collaborate with the PCFRR to ensure that the camp was secured and put to the intended use.The Chairman of Shendam local government, Mr Alex Nantu’am, described the handing over as timely.
Nantu’am, who was represented by the Supervisory Counsellor for Social Services, Mrs Philomena Mamuda, commended the Buhari administration for continuing with the programmes of his predecessor.He assured that the council would do everything possible to take care of the camp. (NAN)
