*Protest politically motivated following First Lady’s 1bn Naira Donation —SEMA Spokesperson
From Joseph Uchenna, Makurdi
All is not well with Internally Displaced Persons in Benue State particularly in Yelwata Community, Guma LGA as thousands, on Wednesday, staged a protest over maltreatments, starvation and non access to medical facility in camps.
The protest was coming just a day after the visit of the First Lady, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu to sympathise with the people of the State over the recent attack on Yelwata which led to the death of over 200 people.
The displaced people barricaded the busy Benue-Nasarawa federal highway in Makurdi, demanding to be decamped and go back to their ancestral homes following the alleged hardships they are experiencing.
The protesters were seen chanting “We want to go back home”, “we are hungry, “our women are losing their babies and pregnancies.
They further said that the protest was meant to draw attention to the severe hunger, lack of medical care, and inhumane treatment they have been experiencing in the camp.
One of the IDPs, Rebecca Awuse told journalists that, “Our problems are that we are hungry, we don’t have food to eat, no where to sleep.
“Our children are crying for severe hunger and many women who are pregnant have all lost their pregnancies because of hunger and no access to medical treatments.
“Also, many of these pregnant women have no where to sleep, they are sleeping on bare floor and no hospital for them to attend antenatal. There are no drugs, no professionals at the camp to consult. These are some of our problems”.
Responding to the IDPs allegations, Benue State Emergency Management Agency BSEMA Information Officer, Tema Ager, said the protest is politically motivated, maintaining that there is no situation for now that should warrant any protest.
Ager denied the claim that pregnant women are sleeping on bare floor, adding that there is no case of pregnant women losing their babies.
“The IDPs are not being starved, government is providing food for them. Those IDPs in Yelwata usually abandon their camp and move to the camp in International Market in Makurdi because it’s a recent camp and people have been trooping in there to provide them with food.
“Even when we take food to them there in Yelwata, they still come back to the international market camp to collect another one. The major issue that triggered this protest is politics. Simply because the first lady visited yesterday Benue State and announced the donation of N1 billion. You know the process of getting this money, sometimes they just announce it. It’s when they go back that they process and release it as promised.
“What the First Lady, Mrs Tinubu announced yesterday cannot happen today, more so, the money is for resettlements not for food and some of them are protesting that they were given money before and we have not shared it to them”, Ager stated.
Ager said the IDPs were supposed to be given food last week but it was overtaken by events.
“The last time food was distributed to the IDPs was in May this year but currently food is being distributed to the IDPs across the state”, he said.
