*50 persons arrested while attempting to steal relief materials
From Joseph Uchenna, in Makurdi
Benue State Government has raised the alarm that criminals, people from host community and market women have inflitrated the camp opened for displaced persons from Yelwata community located at International Market, Makurdi.
The State Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Aonduwaser Kunde who raised the alarm on Saturday while addressing journalist, intimated that 50 persons have been apprehended for attempted to steal materials meant for the IDPs through a collapsed fence.
He said market women from the host community invaded the camp to buy off food items like rice distributed to the dispalced persons.
He said, “We had issues in the camp for the past two days and discovered a lot of inflitrators in the camp. So we conducted investigation after the protest and discovered that criminals and people from the host community in Makurdi were behind the protest.
“So we resolved that we have to be at the camp by 4am today (Saturday) to fish ou those criminals and discovered that they stole mattresses through the collapsed section of the camp fence.
“We discovered that some market women have started coming to the camp to buy off rice and food items distributed to displaced persons.
“We also discovered that some women who were claiming to be lactating mothers went out to borrow babies from outside to be able to access the camp when they discovered that the first set of people we attended to were pregnant women and lactating mothers.
“When these so called lactating mothers were asked to breast feed their babies, we discovered there was no milk coming out of their breast.
Recall that a day after the President visit to Makurdi, the IDPs staged a protest at the camp to express their grievances over poor treatment.
