Zulum storms camp at midnight for headcount over fake IDPs

…Uncovers 650 ghost households

By Ndahi Marama

Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno in the wee hours of yesterday stormed Mohammed Goni College of Islamic Legal Studies in Maiduguri, where Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs from Abadam Local Government Area, LGA of northern Borno are housed and uncovered 650 ghost households in the camp.

It was gathered that as soon as the governor arrived the camp, he sealed off the entrance and exit points before personally supervising a headcount to identify real IDPs.

The aim, it was gathered, was to halt cases of dubious residents pretending to be IDPs during the day to share food meant for IDPs, and at night, would return to their homes to sleep.

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According to source, some of them also benefit from other palliatives the state distributes to vulnerable persons outside the IDPs in communities.

At the end of the head count after 1am the governor discovered that out of 1,000 households in the records of humanitarian officials, 650 households were   identified to be ghosts.

450 households were found to be real IDPs after the headcount by the governor alongside an official of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Air Commodore M. T. Abdullahi, and two commissioners (Agriculture, and Local Government and Emirate Affairs).

In humanitarian system, a household consists of at least six persons who are either related through families, or chosen to stay together for the purpose of receiving aids.

Officials, who were part of the midnight headcount, said “Governor Zulum is not averse to approving support for any citizen who may be vulnerably in need of food since there is a committee doing that. However, the Governor is opposed to residents making dubious claims to take what is meant for IDPs while also benefiting from other existing welfare activities that target non IDPs.”

Vanguard News Nigeria

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