Benue SEMA distributes food items to IDPs

…Says state government spends hundred of millions monthly for purchase of relief materials

By Titus Atondu, Makurdi

Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has distributed food and non-food  materials to Internally Displaced Person’s (IDPs) in the State.

Executive Secretary SEMA, Dr. Emmanuel Shior, made this known on Tuesday at the agency’s headquarters in Makurdi.

He explained that the distribution of relief materials and non-food materials have  become a monthly thing put together by the State government.

Dr Shior revealed that the agency was distributing trucks of rice, beans, yams, indomie and other condiments to the IDPs.

He stated that due to the recent attacks in Tarka and Kwande local government areas number of Displaced Person’s have also increased and were adequately captured in the distribution.

He said the crisis had affected both lives and property in the respective communities across the State.

He also revealed that SEMA spent hundred of millions monthly on both food and other relief materials for the IDPs.

The Executive Secretary said that the State, Federal Government and development partners had to work together to ensure the return of IDPs to their ancestral home.

He stressed that the communities needed security measures to be put in place, for their  return as well as plans to fix the infrastructure that were destroyed and provision for sources of livelihood for them.

He noted that the agency needed a lot of resources to fix the camps, following the return of the rainy season, with a view to making them comfortable.